Development of a sentry smart bearing as a node for connectivity and monitoring of steelmaking system

The Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is herein applied to design a physical node for an interconnected system, based upon data exchange. As a test case the concept of smart bearing equipped with sensors to be used to monitor a cold rolling mill is preliminarily developed. The paper focuses on the two activities of inner and outer monitoring of the bearing service. Outer monitoring is aimed at detecting any abnormal operation of the cluster mill, while the inner one identifies any symptom of damage within the bearing components. The effectiveness of the MBSE approach is investigated, whilst the system is decomposed and analyzed. Layout, connectivity and autonomous power generation are assumed as a reference to assess a preliminary design synthesis, by resorting to some available technologies, and to check the suitability of the smart bearing for the proposed application. Limitations and benefits of the MBSE approach within this context are even discussed.