
- Chile | 20 June 2022

Could you share with us which sub-segments of the mining industry SKF supplies bearings to, and which ones have shown the strongest demand in recent years?
We have seen a significant increase in demand for bearings in the comminution stage, which involves crushing and grinding of the ore. SKF has invested in new technologies such as the SKF Cooper solution for conveyor pulleys, which has been very well accepted in the market. The solution reduces contamination with our triple barrier technology and saves time on maintenance by including a split bearing. This innovation for critical applications results in significant reductions in downtime and immense savings in plant maintenance.
What are the key market trends in the bearings segment of mining that SKF has observed in 2022?
The bearing market is highly competitive, and mining operations are striving to achieve higher production outputs due to the high price cycle of commodities such as copper. This means that the number one priority for bearing manufacturers and distributors is to secure the availability of components to supply operations.
Could you elaborate on SKF’s automated machine learning solutions for predictive maintenance, and hardware for condition monitoring?
SKF has been investing in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for the past two years, which led to the acquisition of Presenso, an Israeli startup company. Today, we can offer an automated machine learning solution that primarily focuses on automatic anomaly detection and prediction of failures.
In Chile, SKF is the leader in condition monitoring hardware, with more than 20,000 installed monitoring points in the country, comprising of both online and portable systems, which are supported by local repair and calibration facilities to deploy hardware and support customers. Our recent collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services, Inc (AWS) is another significant step towards the technology area. It delivers an easy-to-use and easy-to-scale condition monitoring and analysis solution that makes the ability to collect and analyze data using machine learning technologies available to a wider range of applications and customers.
Overall, SKF’s investments in new technologies and solutions, such as the SKF Cooper solution and automated machine learning solutions for predictive maintenance, showcase our commitment to helping our customers achieve their goals by reducing downtime, increasing productivity, and improving safety.