Successful change needs innovation – innovation allows fundamental changes. As the Motion Technology Company, the Schaeffler Group represents the power of innovation, as it aims to break new ground, pursue new ways of thinking, and help shape progress. Innovation forms the foundation for the technological transition and has always been the basis for the company’s role as a pioneer in the development of products and applications that make motion more sustainable. More than ever before, the power of innovation is a key factor in company success.
As a technology company with a clearly defined and established innovation process, the Schaeffler Group focuses on six product innovation clusters and two production innovation clusters (6+2) as key areas of development. This strategic alignment promotes and accelerates the company’s sustainable transformation.
Climate-neutral mobility and motion will require assessment of the entire energy chain. Fossil fuels must be replaced with sustainable alternatives as soon as possible. The focus on hydrogen technology is growing, and Schaeffler is doing its part by developing and industrializing bipolar plates for electrolyzers and fuel cells.
For the Schaeffler Group, digitalization is a driver for innovation and growth in product development as well as sustainable mobility. As an automotive and industrial supplier, Schaeffler’s products are used wherever things are in motion – and thus key areas in which data can be collected and used such as drive-by-wire systems, repair solutions for the Automotive Aftermarket, and condition monitoring systems.
Robotics is an important area of business for the Schaeffler Group as a supplier of key components and systems. The range of rolling bearings already extends from system components such as precision gearboxes to rotary bearings, sensors, and components for “smart” robot joints. The Schaeffler Group is in the process of developing innovative Industry 4.0 and robotic solutions, which help customers optimize their processes, increase their efficiency and flexibility, and make their operations more resilient and sustainable.
The New Production Concepts innovation cluster focuses on developing modular and flexible production concepts, which enable an efficient response to dynamic product requirements and quantity scenarios. A high degree of standardization and modularity should make it possible to reuse a great many process modules, increasing sustainability.
Like climate change, growing urbanization is a major driving force behind the mobility transition. In addition to emission-free drive concepts, this primarily calls for new mobility concepts such as self-driving people and logistics movers. The Space Drive steer-by-wire technology is an excellent foundation for this. The future of urban mobility will also take to the air, where our expertise in electric drives and aerospace will come into play.
Electrifying drive technology is the key to defossilizing and decarbonizing mobility and therefore represents an area of innovation and growth central for Schaeffler. The company has been working with e-mobility for more than 20 years and, by bundling expertise, has very quickly evolved from a supplier of components and subsystems to a specialist in complex, complete systems including software.
The materials used play a decisive role in determining just how sustainable technologies are. Schaeffler focuses on these aspects as early as the product development phase. The company’s extraordinary expertise in the areas of materials and surfaces has proven to be a competitive advantage and innovation accelerator. Schaeffler offers an extensive range of coatings for tailoring component and system surfaces in line with the customers’ specific requirements.
In the Advanced Manufacturing innovation cluster, new processes are developed to an industrialization-capable level of maturity during the product development phase. Examples include the production of hydrodynamic plain bearings for gearboxes in wind turbines using an additive process as well as increasing the efficiency of existing production processes in terms of sustainability and material use.
