SEW-EURODRIVE Introduces DriveRadar, an IoT Suite Condition-Based Monitoring System

SEW-EURODRIVE, an industrial equipment products and services manufacturer, has introduced an Internet of Things (IoT) Suite Condition Monitoring System. DriveRadar was made specifically for the gear units manufactured by the company and will be implemented on new gear unit sales, and provide the opportunity to retrofit the condition monitoring system for gear units that are already installed. The IoT Suite package includes plug-and-play sensors and edge AI to provide customers with a complete end-to-end solution when they purchase their gear units. Enterprises will have the ability to monitor their gear units from anywhere with an application on their smartphones, as well as receiving alerts if their units are malfunctioning.

Equipment and device manufacturers are always looking for ways to stay up to date with their customers’ demands and this announcement sheds light on the demands in the industrial equipment space. Companies that use industrial equipment to drive their business are increasingly interested in the ability to monitor the condition of their equipment to limit downtime and save money. This demand has seemingly influenced industrial equipment manufacturers to start thinking of ways to implement as complete a condition monitoring solution as they can with their products. Of note, SEW-EURODRIVE is also offering to retrofit its DriveRadar CBM solution in its products that have been previously sold without it. It will be important to continue to monitor how companies that currently use industrial equipment will go about adding CBM solutions to their products and how manufacturers go about offering retrofitted CBM solutions.

In recent years, the demand for CBM has significantly increased, especially in the industrial market. ABI Research recommends that industrial equipment manufacturers consider the benefits of adding CBM solutions with their products and determine the most efficient process of implementation. The implementation of a full end-to-end condition-based monitoring solution is typically done through partnerships from companies specializing in hardware and companies specializing in software or analytics. The market for adding CBM to industrial equipment can be split into two categories: embedded solutions and retrofit solutions. The companies specializing in CBM solutions are attempting to serve the retrofit cases and manufacturers are starting to implement new embedded solutions with their products.

However, the markets do have some overlap, especially as equipment manufacturers start to offer end-to-end CBM solutions. Manufacturers have a significant segment of customers who have purchased their products prior to adding CBM, but now want to add monitoring. Manufacturers could try to offer retrofit solutions, as they are using one of their products, or the customer may choose a company that specializes in CBM products. This provides a significant challenge to manufacturing companies if they are going to try and provide retrofit solutions, in addition to their new embedded monitoring solutions.

The majority of partnerships throughout the CBM industry currently are between sensor, platform, and analytics/machine learning companies. It may prove beneficial for more industrial equipment manufacturers to consider partnering with or acquiring companies specializing in different levels of the CBM value chain to better serve the demands of new customers and existing customers who don’t yet have CBM of their equipment.