SKF BEARINGS

 

           The company was founded on Sven Wingqvist's 1907 Swedish patent No. 25406, a multi-row self-aligning radial ball bearing. The Patent was granted on 6 June in Sweden coinciding with patents in 10 other countries. The new ball bearing was successful from the outset. By 1910, the company had 325 employees and a subsidiary in the United Kingdom. Manufacturing operations were later established in multiple countries.

 

          By 1912, SKF was represented in 32 countries and by 1930, a staff of over 21,000 were employed in 12 manufacturing facilities worldwide with the largest in Philadelphia, Pa.

 

          Assar Gabrielsson, SKF sales manager and Björn Prytz, Managing Director of SKF were the founders of Volvo AB in 1926. In the beginning, the company functioned as a subsidiary automobile company within the SKF group. SKF funded the production run of the first thousand cars, built at Hisingen in Gothenburg, beginning in 1927. SKF used one of the company's trademarked names: AB Volvo, which derives from the Latin "I roll", with its obvious connotations of bearings in motion. The ownership of Volvo lasted until 1935 when the last shares were divested.

 

         In the 1970s SKF embarked on a massive production rationalization program in Europe. A visionary project, "Production Concept for the 80s" was launched with the aim to run the night shifts practically unmanned. To increase productivity and safeguard the product quality, a continuous, automatic flow of bearing rings was needed, so SKF developed the Flexlink multiflex plastic chain conveyor system. SKF divested FlexLink as a separate company in 1997.

The main products of SKF Group is such as solutions and services within rolling bearings, seals, mechatronics, services and lubrication systems. Services include technical support, maintenance services, condition monitoring and training.

        Deep groove ball bearings are used in a particularly wide variety of applications. Consequently, they are available in many executions and sizes. The standard SKF range

comprises the following types:

– single row deep groove ball bearings
– SKF Energy Efficient deep groove ball bearings
– single row deep groove ball bearings with filling slots
– stainless steel single row deep groove ball bearings
– double row deep groove ball bearings
– single row hybrid deep groove ball bearings, see section "Engineering products -

Hybrid bearings"
– single row deep groove ball bearings for high temperatures, see section "Engineering

products - Bearings and bearing units for high temperatures"
– cam rollers, see section "Track runner bearings - Cam rollers" 
– polymer ball bearings, see section "Engineering products - Polymer ball bearings"