EU Commissioner Oettinger visits Schaeffler’s booth in Hanover
HANNOVER MESSE 2016: DIGITALIZATION MADE BY SCHAEFFLER
High-ranking representatives from politics also found out about Schaeffler's solutions and developments in “digitalization” and “Predictive Maintenance 4.0” at the Hannover Messe. Günther H. Oettinger, EU Commissioner for Digital Economy & Society, was given a demonstration of the products and services, with which Schaeffler is actively shaping digitalization from the sensor to the cloud. The guests were received by Dr. Stefan Spindler, Member of the Executive Board of Schaeffler AG, and Martin Schreiber, Vice President Global Product Sales Schaeffler Industrial.
EU Commissioner Oettinger was especially impressed by Schaeffler's “Drive Train 4.0” and “Machine Tool 4.0” technologies. Based on components equipped with sensors and a cloud-based software platform, the completely-networked machine represents a definitive step towards digitalized manufacturing. Only a few days previously, EU Commissioner Oettinger named the “Machine Tool 4.0” as one of the finalists of the German Business Innovation Award.
“The example of Schaeffler shows how successfully the German and European economy is pushing digitalization forward and putting it into practice”， said Oettinger. “Schaeffler is sending out a clear message to the market with its software products and cloud-based services.”
“With our technologies and software products like Bearinx, we are demonstrating to what extent Schaeffler is actively pushing forward digitalization. Machine Tool 4.0 shows the potential of digitalized products, which we will transfer to a large number of other sectors, such as wind power or railways”， said Dr. Spindler. Schaeffler has the best prerequisites to use the opportunities for digitalization and to further develop conventional mechanical engineering into the interconnected “Industrie 4.0”。“
Technology demonstrations illustrate data-based added value for the customer
The ”Drive Train 4.0“ technology exhibit comprises a motor, clutch, and gearbox and represents a wide range of drives found in all performance classes and applications. Numerous sensors, measuring devices, and actuators are integrated into the drive, which transmit their measured values to the cloud-based software platform and are controlled as required based on the analysis of the data. One example is the calculation of rolling bearings' remaining useful life in operation – in other words, based on real load conditions. This service from Schaeffler is new on the market and offers machine operators a predictive maintenance solution that provides a far-reaching look into the future without the need for irregularities to occur and be detected on the drives first.
At the core of the ”Machine Tool 4.0“ project lies the question as to how productivity, quality, reliability and user friendliness can be increased using digitalization in the factories of the future. Schaeffler developed this machine concept together with DMG MORI, one of the world's leading cutting machine tool manufacturers, as well as other partners. The fully interconnected machine is used in volume production at Schaeffler. Linking it with other machines along the digitalized value added chain enables Schaeffler to test the feasibility of the concept in practice in an industrial environment using specific data and to gain information for further development.