AI, IoT, connected technologies and sustainability are reshaping modern manufacturing, while traditional components such as bearings are evolving into smarter, data-driven solutions that improve machine reliability and efficiency.
Sushmita Das, Associate Editor, Gear Technology India, interacted with Mr Sanoj Somasundaran, Chief Technology Officer, SKF India (Industrial), and Director, Technology Development, ISEAM, to discuss these developments and their implications for the gear and power transmission industry. With over 28 years of experience in engineering, product development and digital technologies, Mr Somasundaran shares his insights on predictive maintenance, advanced materials, energy efficiency, SKF’s Bengaluru Global Technical Centre, and the future of intelligent manufacturing in India.
At SKF India Industrial, we are redefining modern gear-driven systems by transforming the traditional bearing from a purely mechanical component into an intelligent, data-generating unit. Through our advanced sensor integration and wireless frameworks, we are embedding digital technology directly into rotating equipment, creating a real-time digital loop between physical assets and cloud analytics. Our connected technology platforms, such as Aptitude Insight, capture critical operational metrics, including thermal behaviours and vibration signatures, converting raw data into clear, actionable intelligence that helps in predictive & preventive maintenance. We also have Aptitude Reliability, which helps with data visualisation and provides insights into the overall health condition through a multi-level dashboard, which would further strengthen the response to queries related to integrating AI, IoT, and connected technologies.
In complex gear systems, this enables continuous health monitoring, ensuring heavy machinery does not operate in isolation. This intelligent connectivity is vital as India targets rapid infrastructure expansion, enabling operators to optimise heavy rotating assets. By leveraging these digitalisation levers, we move beyond component supply to become a true problem-solving partner, providing solutions helping industries eliminate premature wear and maximise system performance.
The industrial rotating landscape in India is experiencing an intense transformation driven by rapid technological evolution, automation, and structural macro trends like digitalisation and decarbonization. We see a shift where standard mechanical assemblies are giving way to high-efficiency, sensor-equipped rotating technologies have a better predictive & preventive maintenance. One of the most prominent localised trends is the rapid adoption of Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing across Indian factories, creating an urgent demand for bearings that seamlessly integrate with automated systems and IoT-enabled machinery. This is critical to minimising industrial downtime, enhancing productivity, and lowering overall maintenance costs.
At SKF India Industrial, we are actively leading these trends by focusing on closing the energy efficiency gap in industrial operations. For instance, the aggressive acceleration of electrification in industrial motors demands specialised solutions like our newly optimised hybrid ceramic bearings. These bearings eliminate electrical erosion and offer up to eight times longer grease life and 25% higher operating speeds than standard steel bearings, enabling highly compact and energy-efficient motor designs. Concurrently, to support India’s massive expansion in high-tech infrastructure and data centres, we have introduced frictionless magnetic bearing solutions for centrifugal chillers, allowing oil-free operations and maximum energy efficiency. These deep engineering trends align perfectly with India’s macro momentum, where high-tech manufacturing has surged to contribute a substantial 46.3% of the manufacturing sector’s value added, demanding highly specialised, future-ready rotating infrastructure.
Our Global Technical Centre India (GTCI) in Bengaluru is a cornerstone of our global engineering footprint and a vital powerhouse of innovation. Operating with over 15 years of built development expertise, GTCI functions as a crucial hub on two fronts.
1. For India, South-East Asia, Middle East regional markets
2. For global engineering from India.
The centre drives advanced engineering and product adaptations to suit specialised customer and industry needs, helping OEMs design systems focused on sustainability and lower carbon emissions. The technical depth at GTCI is extensive.
Our specialised teams perform sophisticated finite element analysis and complex product investigations, using advanced simulation and calculations to evaluate high-value component behaviours before physical manufacturing begins. We also have state-of-the-art labs & testing at GTCI, where you do physical testing before releasing the product into the market. This local testing and modelling capacity accelerates innovation cycles while enabling a full value chain ecosystem for critical sectors like wind energy, railways, and heavy machinery, etc.
Furthermore, we practice what we preach when it comes to sustainability. The GTCI centre itself stands as an operational benchmark for environmental conservation, utilising high-efficiency Swegon Air Handling Units, solar hot water networks, and smart energy panels that save considerable energy annually. By tightly integrating core engineering with deep digital capabilities and green operations, Bengaluru successfully delivers products to the regional market as well as for the global industrial market requirements.
We see predictive maintenance as the absolute cornerstone for transitioning heavy industries from a state of costly reactive repair to proactive machine reliability. Industrial machinery, especially complex rotating equipment and gearboxes, often operates under gruelling, continuous stress where minor internal anomalies can quickly manifest as catastrophic mechanical failure. Our specialised predictive maintenance products detect & give alerts on anomalies. By utilising advanced machine condition-monitoring tools, we continuously track critical health indicators, such as vibration, temperature, humidity, etc.
To make this analysis effortless, we have introduced portable, smart tools like our new QuickCollect sensor CMDT392. This Bluetooth-enabled device delivers faster data collection and features a simple, user-friendly design backed by a rechargeable battery built for a full day of work. Through seamless app connectivity, it allows operators to detect microstructural anomalies, surface wear, and misalignment weeks before any visible damage or performance drop occurs. In capital-intensive sectors like power generation, mining, and cement, this strategic insight minimises unplanned downtime, optimises total maintenance costs, and prevents secondary component damage across the drivetrain. As Indian factories aggressively scale up automation, our predictive framework delivers the operational security required to protect full-scale industrial productivity and extend equipment lifecycles.
SKF India Industrial is firmly committed to the philosophy of less friction, more progress, recognising that the science of tribology, managing friction, wear, and surface interactions, is crucial to elevating industrial performance. As India strives to move higher in global manufacturing indices, achieving true competitive excellence means doing more with less energy, less material loss, and zero unplanned downtime. We are addressing this directly by embedding deep tribological and metallurgical insights into our design processes, preventing unpredictable component deformation and heat build-up under extreme operating conditions.
Our latest high-performance materials and intelligent lubrication systems are breakthroughs in extending asset lifecycles while maximising industrial efficiency. For instance, our newly engineered energy-efficient deep groove ball bearings reduce frictional moment by 25% or more, doubling bearing service life while securing a substantial reduction in carbon emissions. Similarly, our large-size sealed spherical roller bearings engineered for heavy sectors like mining and cement cut grease consumption by an incredible 99% and effectively triple service life. By introducing optimised, specialised lubrication management systems, we eliminate contamination risks and ensure that critical machinery operates with unmatched reliability. These material advancements empower Indian industrial sectors to achieve rigorous productivity benchmarks and advance their decarbonization journeys.
SKF India Industrial sees the shift toward intelligent and software-defined industrial systems as a significant opportunity for Indian manufacturers to improve asset reliability, operational efficiency, and competitiveness. As manufacturing environments become increasingly complex, leveraging real-time machine health data and predictive insights will be critical to ensuring uninterrupted operations and maximising productivity.
Through advanced condition monitoring and predictive maintenance solutions, manufacturers can detect potential equipment issues at an early stage, enabling timely interventions before failures occur. This helps reduce unplanned downtime, improve asset availability, and optimise maintenance strategies based on actual equipment condition rather than fixed schedules, as highlighted by SKF’s Predictive Maintenance Services. By transforming maintenance from a reactive to a predictive function, intelligent industrial systems enable organisations to make better-informed decisions, improve resource utilisation, and enhance overall operational performance.
As India continues its manufacturing growth journey, the adoption of data-driven and intelligent technologies will help industries build more resilient and efficient operations while supporting sustainable long-term growth.
SKF India Industrial believes collaboration with startups is essential to accelerating innovation and shaping the future of industrial technologies. Through SKF Ventures, we are creating a platform that brings together SKF India Industrial’s deep industrial expertise with the agility, creativity, and emerging capabilities of startups and technology innovators.
SKF Ventures focuses on identifying emerging technologies, validating new ideas through open innovation, and scaling promising solutions into sustainable businesses. By engaging with startups, technology partners, and external innovators, SKF India Industrial gains early access to breakthrough technologies and new business models in areas such as digital solutions, energy efficiency, and circularity. This collaborative approach complements our internal R&D efforts, enabling us to accelerate innovation cycles and develop smarter, more sustainable solutions that address evolving customer needs.
As industries continue to transform, partnerships with the startup ecosystem will play a critical role in helping SKF India Industrial drive industrial innovation, strengthen competitiveness, and create long-term value for customers and society.
At SKF India Industrial, sustainability is deeply embedded in our innovation strategy and serves as a key driver of our technology roadmap. As manufacturers increasingly focus on improving efficiency while reducing their environmental impact, we are developing intelligent and energy-efficient solutions that help customers enhance performance, optimise resource utilisation, and advance their sustainability goals.
Our innovation efforts are focused on technologies that improve equipment reliability, extend asset life, reduce energy consumption, and enable more efficient industrial operations. Alongside advancements in bearing technologies, tribology, and lubrication solutions, we are leveraging digital capabilities such as AI-enabled analytics, predictive maintenance, real-time diagnostics, and sensor integration to help customers monitor equipment health, optimise performance, and minimise unplanned downtime. We are also incorporating digital twins and model-based engineering approaches to simulate and enhance product performance before deployment, enabling more efficient use of resources throughout the asset lifecycle.
By combining advanced engineering expertise with digital innovation, we help industries achieve greater productivity while reducing waste, emissions, and overall energy consumption. These initiatives reflect SKF India Industrial’s belief that sustainability is deeply embedded in our DNA and central to how we innovate.
As digitalisation and smart manufacturing reshape industrial operations, engineers will need a strong foundation in core engineering principles, combined with skills in data analytics, automation, AI, and Industrial IoT.
Equally important will be the ability to translate large volumes of industrial data into meaningful, actionable insights that improve operational performance on the shopfloor. Engineers will also need to work seamlessly across multidisciplinary teams, integrating mechanical, digital, and software-driven perspectives to solve complex manufacturing challenges. As production systems become increasingly connected and intelligent, adaptability, problem-solving, and continuous upskilling will be critical to keeping pace with evolving technologies and ensuring effective adoption of smart manufacturing practices.
Together, these capabilities will enable engineers to lead more efficient, resilient, and future-ready manufacturing systems.
Over the next five years, SKF India Industrial’s key technology priorities for the industrial sector will focus on closing the energy efficiency gap by developing solutions that improve energy performance in industrial applications. A key emphasis will be on technologies that help reduce energy losses through improved friction management and more efficient operation of rotating equipment.
SKF India Industrial will also focus on advancing energy-efficient bearing technologies and related innovations that enhance overall machine performance while lowering energy consumption. Alongside this, digital technologies and condition monitoring will play an important role in improving visibility of equipment performance and enabling better operational outcomes. Through these focus areas, we at SKF India Industrial aim to support industries in improving efficiency, reliability, and sustainability in their operations.
Sanoj Somasundaran
Chief Technology Officer, SKF India (Industrial), and Director, Technology Development, ISEAM (India, SE Asia, Middle East)
Sanoj Somasundaran is the Chief Technology Officer of SKF India, where he leads the company’s technology, innovation and engineering agenda across India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East (ISEAM) for customer-centric solutions & products
As the CTO of SKF India (Industrial), he crafts the technological roadmap for the industrial entity, aligning local innovation priorities with SKF Group’s global technological vision, and advancing clean, intelligent solutions for industry and the planet.
With over 28+ years of experience, he brings deep expertise across product development, connected technologies, IoT, electronics, and advanced engineering for industrial and automotive applications. He has successfully built and scaled global technical centres, managed large multidisciplinary engineering teams, led multiple functions and driven innovation across hardware, software, electronics, and digital platforms.
Prior to SKF, Sanoj held senior leadership roles at Bosch and Valeo, where he led end-to-end engineering operations, P&L responsibilities, product development, Cost projects and global technology centre strategy, overseeing teams of over 1,500 engineers.
Sanoj heads SKF’s Global Technical Centre in Bengaluru, a key node in the company’s global R&D network, where teams develop Products for ISEAM as well as for global markets in the areas of bearings, predictive maintenance, connected technologies, and next-gen materials, shaping future-ready industrial solutions from India.
Known for driving Innovation, change management and a strong execution focus, Sanoj champions clean, intelligent technologies that translate innovation into sustainable performance- strengthening customer outcomes and shaping SKF’s future-ready industrial leadership.
