SKF to invest in two new Global Technical Centres in Europe

SKF has announced plans to build two new Global Technical Centres in Europe — one in Gothenburg, Sweden and one in Nieuwegein, The Netherlands.

Together these will form a Global Technical Centre Europe (GTCE) structure and will enable SKF to utilize its global footprint and resources to develop innovations across its five technology platforms — bearings, seals, mechatronics, lubrication systems and services. SKF already has a Global Technical Centre India (GTCI) in Bengaluru, and is expanding its Global Technical Centre China (GTCC) and moving it to the new campus at Jiading, Shanghai.

“One of SKF’s driving forces is to continue to deliver world leading research and innovation, and to develop new products and solutions which offer significant energy savings for our customers. These two new centres are part of a global network of technical centres, which the group is developing,” said Tom Johnstone, SKF president and CEO. “In the last four years, SKF has more than doubled the number of patent filings, which shows that the increased investment we have made in R&D is bringing results. The opening of these centres reinforces our commitment to increase our investment in research and development and bring it even closer to customers.”

The two new centres within GTCE are part of SKF’s technology strategy to develop its global product development and engineering organization. The new Global Technical Centre in Gothenburg will interact with SKF’s Manufacturing Development Centre (MDC), which is the main centre for manufacturing development for the group. The new centre in Nieuwegein will work closely with SKF’s main Engineering & Research Centre (ERC) where SKF performs state-of-the-art research in such areas as advanced dynamic simulations for bearings, advanced lubrication development and the principles of tribology.

“GTCE will leverage synergies with the other global technical centres and focus on areas such as advanced product development, technical data management and testing,” said Alan Begg, senior vice-pesident for the SKF Group Technology and Development. “At full capacity, it is estimated that we will need to employ over 100 new engineers in Nieuwegein and around 50 in Gothenburg. They will work in the areas of product engineering and development, as well as testing metallurgy, chemistry and bearing performance analysis.”