UZWIL, SWITZERLAND — Bühler Group and Balaguer Rolls from Spain have signed a collaboration agreement for the design and supply of SmartRolls and services allowing remote condition and performance monitoring of the rolls. The SmartRolls are connected to Bühler Insights.

 “The collaboration agreement will serve customers worldwide by building on Balaguer’s recognized knowledge in the field of cast iron rolls and proprietary optical measurement system while making full use of Bühler’s strong process knowledge and leadership in digitalizing processing lines through Bühler Insights,” said David and Santiago Balaguer, owners of Balaguer.

 “Customers will benefit from significantly more efficient operation with higher safety and optimization of service downtimes provided by the different elements of the SmartRoll service technologies developed by Balaguer and Bühler,” said Johannes Wick, chief executive officer of Bühler Grains & Food.

Bühler announced its role in providing SmartRolls at the Networking Days 2016. Since that announcement, Bühler has accumulated more than 100,000 hours of experience in industrial operations, ensuring robust and fully validated technology and building a profound understanding of how to use the new insights and early indicators to enhance consistent performance of flour mills. Bühler also has been the leading force in the industry for allowing continuous assessment of rolls through the Bühler rollDetect, introduced almost a decade ago.

Bühler and Balaguer will work together in the development of the next-generation of rollDetect built on the Balaguer optical measurement system and provide SmartRolls connected to Bühler Insights enabling improved mill performance.

 This collaboration agreement will allow Bühler to access the optical roll measurement technology from Balaguer. Therefore, Bühler will gradually replace its rollDetect service with the new optical solution.

 Based on this collaboration agreement, Bühler will adapt its sourcing strategy. Bühler will continue to provide its high-performance roll portfolio from its foundry in China but also will benefit from the European manufacturing capabilities of Balaguer.

This unlocks the opportunity to serve all levels of market requirements, with a better optimized logistics footprint from being closer to its customer base, Bühler said.

The Balaguer rolls also will be used for retrofitting existing assets with SmartRoll service packages connected to Bühler Insights and for big diameter rolls.

Bühler and Balaguer will continue to service its respective customer base and act in the markets independently.