SKF protects customers against counterfeit bearings

In addition to costing the business economy in excess of EUR4.5billion each year, and 70,000 jobs in Germany alone, counterfeit components have been found to be responsible for a number of serious accidents, including the crashing of a Norwegian airliner from which no passengers survived. These consequences could have easily been avoided by the implementation of genuine SKF bearings, manufactured to high precision standards and tolerances of within a few microns.

In recognition of the increasing problem of counterfeit engineering components, SKF worked in collaboration with like-minded organisations to eradicate forty tonnes of imitation bearings that had been imported into Europe. The counterfeit products, displaying SKF, INA and FAG branding, were discovered in Franconia, Germany after a major investigation that prompted SKF to take action, recognising that counterfeit components pose a threat not only to the companies producing the genuine goods, but also to end users.

Rolling bearings are incorporated into almost all mechanical devices that rotate, such as papermaking machines, quarrying equipment, wind turbines, gearboxes, materials handling applications and machine tools - allowing an extensive scope for accidents to occur due to counterfeit components. However, recognised worldwide for its intricately detailed research and service engineering expertise, SKF provides the solution with bearings of the highest quality, eliminating the dangers that counterfeit bearings can pose.

Following the destruction of the counterfeit bearings, SKF's highly qualified team of experts is stressing to end users the importance of acquiring bearings from a reliable and trustworthy source. This is essential in order to benefit from the quality and functionality that genuine bearings can offer, and to obtain the highest levels of performance, reliability and safety for machinery and equipment.