Volvo in Skövde, Sweden, has developed a condition monitoring system together with SKF. The system is installed in the company’s plant for manufacturing cylinder heads and cylinder blocks. It analyses the vibrations in machine tool spindles and transmissions. As a result, the availability factor for spindles and gears has increased dramatically.

Altogether the production line has 325 measuring points where vibrations are registered. The data are analysed by the SKF Prism⁴ software, which enables Volvo to detect possible machine tool malfunctions in advance. This enables the company to order spare parts in good time and incorporate replacements in its scheduled maintenance.