As industries intensify their efforts to cut downtime, reduce maintenance costs and operate with greater energy efficiency, the ability to anticipate equipment issues before they occur has become essential. Predictive maintenance, once considered an emerging technology, is now a core requirement for modern operations and SEW-EURODRIVE is driving this evolution with its advanced DriveRadar® IoT Suite.

Across sectors ranging from mining and automotive to agriculture, ports, airports, and food and beverage production, reliable drivetrain performance remains non-negotiable. Willem Strydom, Business Development Manager for Electronics at SEW-EURODRIVE, says the market is moving rapidly towards smarter asset intelligence. Customers increasingly want deeper, real-time insights into their operations and DriveRadar® provides exactly that through an ecosystem of intelligent sensors, edge devices and cloud-based analytics offering complete operational visibility.

Traditional maintenance practices such as manual plant surveys are proving inadequate in today’s dynamic production environments. Werner Engelbrecht, Works Manager Megatronic at SEW-EURODRIVE, notes that these surveys often become outdated quickly as equipment is replaced or repaired. DriveRadar®, by contrast, captures every new item added to the plant, offering a live, accurate and continuously updated asset overview. As plant layouts and equipment evolve, this real-time accuracy becomes vital for effective decision-making.

The benefits extend beyond visibility, with predictive capability at the heart of preventing failures. Engelbrecht explains that operators who respond to the system’s insights can avoid catastrophic breakdowns entirely. This also reduces the need for personnel to conduct repetitive physical inspections, freeing human resources for more strategic maintenance work.

A key differentiator of DriveRadar® is its reliance on SEW-EURODRIVE’s integrated drivetrain ecosystem rather than third-party add-on sensors. Strydom highlights that the company’s frequency inverters function as highly accurate, multi-function sensors. Each inverter measures time of operation, energy consumption, load and torque and detects vibrations or shocks - generating hundreds of parameters per device.

With additional motor sensors and advanced vibration sensors where required, DriveRadar® collects data such as temperature, ambient conditions, oil levels and ageing indicators, load variations and vibration signatures extracted directly from motor harmonics.

All this information is combined to create a digital twin of each drivetrain. The digital twin uses AI-driven models to learn normal operating behaviour from the moment equipment is commissioned. Any deviation from this baseline is detected immediately, enabling early identification of bearing damage, prediction of brake lining life, forecasting of oil change intervals, detection of structural faults and identification of load inefficiencies. Importantly, the system is capable of monitoring non-SEW-EURODRIVE components as well, making it suitable for entire applications such as conveyors or pick-and-place machinery.

Accessibility is another major advantage. DriveRadar® allows data to be stored in the SEW-EURODRIVE cloud, the customer’s private cloud or local servers and can integrate with existing SCADA systems. Users can access full equipment data and generate reports from mobile devices, including in remote regions using GSM or SIM-based communication. This mobility is particularly valued by maintenance teams who can identify issues immediately without physically walking the plant.

To support customers in adopting these advanced tools, SEW-EURODRIVE has invested extensively in training. The company now offers training both on site and through its Drive Academy in Johannesburg.