SKF and Proximion AB, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hexatronic Group AB have entered into a development partnership for the industrialisation of fiber optic sensing systems.

The two parties will work together to combine SKF’s fiber optic bearing sensing technology with Proximion’s application integration experience and knowledge within development and production of advanced fiber optic sensors and data collection hardware units.

Victoria Van Camp, CTO and President, Innovation and Business Development, says: “Fiber optic sensing technology is an exciting opportunity, as it enables bearings to become process and quality control instruments. 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.”

Fiber 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.