Castrol and Gehring offer greater precision in manufacturing

Castrol, one of the world’s leading lubricants brands, and Gehring, a globally operating machine tool company, are partnering to roll out Castrol’s SmartControl, a real-time fluid condition monitoring solution, into Gehring’s machine tools. This is part of a wider partnership agreement both parties signed in 2018.

SmartControl is Castrol’s automated real-time fluid condition monitoring solution for metalworking fluids (MWF). It provides real-time measurement of the vital metal working fluid parameters, putting its user in full control of their MWF operation while minimising the manual work. 

Gehring is widely recognised as a technology leader for honing and laser applications, as well as innovator in the production technology for electric vehicle powertrain. With a variety of experience in optimizing functional surfaces, a core expertise is the optimization of automotive internal combustion engines.

Meeting the future challenge of continually reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and increasing engine efficiency will require a step change in the precision manufacturing of engine parts.

Gehring and Castrol will be working together on integrating SmartControl into Gehring’s machines and their machine data platform Gehring Core. This should enable greater process stability, increased efficiency in fluid use and machine operations, as well as greater tool life and improved quality.

Combining Castrol’s stable and high performing XBB fluids with the real-time condition monitoring technology will enable the best performance on Gehring machines. Customers will be in full control of their machine operations and have one less thing to worry about.

“This cooperation marks an important milestone in our journey to become the market leader in integrated product and service solutions for the manufacturing industry. Through digitalising the cutting fluid monitoring process we will remove manual workload, optimise coolant consumption and improve the level of control for our customers. I am also confident that having SmartControl inside of Gehring honing machines will demonstrate the stability of our XBB product range,” said Andreas Osbar, board member, BP Europa SE and sales director for Lubricants Industrial Europe.

“This cooperation is a perfect example of how digitalization should work: facilitating everyday production and opening up new possibilities. Castrol’s SmartControl together with our CORE platform gives manufacturers straight advantages in performance, quality and cost while they are easily implemented,” said Sebastian Schöning, CEO of the Gehring Group.

The two companies are already exploring how to increase the efficiency of combustion and engine oil lubrication, by developing new solutions to optimise cylinder-block machining and surface finishing. The surface structure of cylinder blocks has to be perfectly designed to absorb as much engine oil as possible, while maintaining the required friction properties for ideal fuel combustion. This partnership will enable greater precision in manufacturing and open up new possibilities for the use of new materials in future engine designs.