Recently, we visited the Anuga FoodTec 2024 exhibition, one of the top global trade shows for the supply side of the food and beverage industry, which was organized by Koelnmesse GmbH in Cologne.

By Ionel Văduva and Tudor Vintiloiu

Always in search of innovative products, this time we’ve had the chance to speak with top representatives from several exhibiting companies. One of our hosts during Anuga FoodTec 2024 was Marielle In de Braek, Global Business Development Manager F&B at Schaeffler Lifetime Solutions.

PBD: Food and beverages sector. A big turning point for Schaeffler. New priorities and ways of thinking. Please tell us more about the needs of this particular market perspective.

Marielle In de Braek: For Schaeffler, the food and beverage sector is relatively new, because Schaeffler is all about bearings. And the big bearings are in mining, in cement, you name it, wind energy. All of these critical sectors need big bearings. When it comes to the food and beverage market, we switched to condition monitoring to keep the specialized bearings going lifetime. We’ve turned our attention to this particular market because it is a very stable one, with the potato processing market placed on the fast-growing lane.

PBD: Please tell us a few things about the advantages of using your company’s products specially designed for the food and beverages sector.

M.B.: For the food and beverage sector, one of our products’ advantages is that the customers can take their minds off the in-plant downtime. If a potential customer of ours faces a bearing breakdown all of a sudden, the entire production line stops, and then all the food has to be taken off the line as waste. Also, the potential client has to repair what has happened, exchange the bearing, and clean the line again. These are hours and hours of standstill. That means money and costs for the food and beverage companies. It’s not in the bearing itself, because in the food and beverages sector, they are relatively small, however it is in hours of downtime.

PBD: Then your company takes over through a set of sensors that you’re providing.

M.B.: Our sensors detect the in-effect/potential problems during their very early stages through vibration analysis. Normally, companies have the so-called maintenance experts listening in an old-fashioned style to all the machinery’s bearings and go to action if the case requires. Now, we have these sensors that send data directly to the customer’s app and, if there is something wrong, it generates feedback. We have four stages of feedback alarms warning-like, ones for when a bearing is just suspected to be broken, or a reminder to change a product reaching its warranty limit. This solution gives the operator enough time frame to replace or repair the product. For food and beverage, the cost is actually in preventing the downtime from happening.

PBD: So, this solution is a relatively standardized one.

M.B.: Yes, because the processes are relatively similar for potato chips and French fries production. Besides the freezing part, everything is more or less the same.

PBD: Can the monitoring software your company provides be integrated into your customer’s line managing software?

M.B.: We have our dashboard. But this solution can be integrated into the customer’s line dashboard. That is an additional feature. Through REST API the customers can integrate all the data in their dashboard.

PBD: How did the market receive this type of innovation?

M.B.: Very well, although the food and beverage sector is a little bit conservative. There is still a group of maintenance managers that continues to listen if a piece of machinery is broken. It takes a lot of experience to reach that level. It’s like a dying species. It costs a lot of time to do the round every day to listen to all the bearings. The younger generation is more eager to have an app on their phone and just check the machinery and avoid doing the rounds every day. The younger generation is picking up very fast. However, there are still some people in the food and beverage sector who are still relying on listening.

PBD: Who’s more open to technology? Larger or smaller companies?

M.B.: The larger companies. It depends though what you consider small. In Spain, I know a lot of companies producing limited batches of potato chips, for example. For a small business like that solutions like the one presented may appear not feasible. I think the more appropriate industry would be the one where there are conveyors and more machinery in line.