On digitisation we have found at Fuchs that each department generates its own big data which starts in the R&D department, the data is then used in the production process, through manufacturing and into sales including e-commerce activity, logistics and finally into the service area. The data that is collected throughout the entire value chain will be broader compared to today’s information. All the data we are gathering in each step of the value chain will build on the data collected in the previous step. In the service area we will be able to collect additional data in lubricant condition monitoring about the application and the use of the fluid that will feed into the new requirements for new lubricants in their development phase. At the end our aim is to make the lubricant talk and to generate a ‘smart’ lubricant not only in condition monitoring on the application side but also applying our condition monitoring in production and manufacturing to generate analytics and measures.


What does this mean for R&D? Digitisation improves efficiency by allowing us to produce a product as good as we can make it through automating processes in our laboratories with the intent to speed up the development time and shorten the time to market of new products. The application of digitisation can also help to reduce the number of test methods in screening products during the development phase with a high level of accuracy by using simulation and calculation models. The big challenge for all this is the right parametrisation/ description of the lubricant and how its properties then feed into the calculation.


predict the interactive behaviour of our products on adjoining metal surfaces. Defining the Fuchs 4.0 and what it means to us, is an area where we are trying to apply sensors to generate a new generation of smart lubricants.


3D printing is a relatively new technology. In 2016 we are all aware that this modern manufacturing process will lead to a reduction in the demand for foaming and cooling lubricants in different industries for example aerospace, medical, engineering or automotive. In 2016 the business association BITCOM considered that 3D printing in the aircraft industry will become the primary manufacturing method by 2030.


Comparing 3D printing and manufacturing process it is estimated that the production time will be reduced by up to ninety percent.


Already in 2016 with Airbus we see different titanium components manufactured by 3D printing. Airbus have developed “Thor” where a range of fifty component parts almost all of which can be manufactured using this process in the production and use of flying aircraft.


Comparing 3D printing within the manufacturing process, it is estimated that production time can be reduced by up to ninety percent with associated reductions in the component cost of anything up to seventy- five percent which makes for a


pretty convincing argument. In medical engineering the 3D method of printing is a pretty common method of manufacturing nowadays and can produce very well-defined and tailor-made manufacturing implants. This year Mercedes-Benz have announced that they are manufacturing spare parts for trucks using this process.


Internally Fuchs have defined what digitisation means in R&D into five major segments. First of all the major challenge is to develop methods to describe the lubricant correctly in a tribological sense for further application in simulation and calculation models and equations. Secondly we want to apply simulation and calculation methods to support and speed up the R&D process working mainly on the mechanical and physical side of the product’s attributes. Also by trying to apply calculation models on the chemical modelling of the lubricant we can try to calculate and


Twelve months later in 2017 there is already cooperation between Premium Aerotech, an Airbus affiliate, the aerospace industry and the car manufacturing industry led by Daimler with the aim to produce 3D printing of aluminium for spare parts as they currently do with titanium. EOS is part of this partnership and they have already produced a 3D print factory which will start in operation soon. Boeing too has already given approval for the 3D production of components in titanium for use in production aircraft. The outlook for this area of technological


Continued on page 50 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.143 FEBRUARY 2018 49


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