SKF and Proximion AB, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hexatronic Group AB have entered into a development partnership for the industrialisation of fibre-optic sensing systems.
The two parties will work together to combine SKF’s fibre-optic bearing sensing technology with Proximion’s application integration experience and knowledge within development and production of advanced fibre-optic sensors and data collection hardware units.
“Fibre-optic sensing technology is an exciting opportunity, as it enables bearings to become process and quality control instruments,” said Victoria Van Camp, CTO and President, Innovation and Business Development at SKF.
“We have worked for some time to develop these sensors and by taking the next step together, we will be able to speed up the process of integrating these into customer applications.”
Camp added that fibre-optic technology allows for end-of-line integration into existing bearing production environments, whilst most existing sensor technologies place additional requirements on rebuilding manufacturing sites to cater for safe handling of electronics.
SKF is a leading global supplier of bearings, seals, mechatronics, lubrication systems, and services which include technical support, maintenance and reliability services, engineering consulting and training. It is represented in more than 130 countries and has around 17 000 distributor locations worldwide.