About
SKF was born from a crisis: in 1905, Swedish engineer Sven Wingquist was wrestling with bearing failures at a textile mill when he designed a self-aligning ball bearing — one that could tolerate shaft misalignment. The patent made him a fortune and founded an industry: SKF (Svenska Kullagerfabriken, Swedish Ball Bearing Factory) became the world's largest bearing maker, and bearings — the 'revolving parts' that let machines move smoothly — became SKF's monopoly-adjacent specialty for a century. The company is the world's largest maker of bearings and seals, producing billions of components a year — from the tiny bearings inside hard drives and dental drills to the giant units in wind turbines and mining mills. Its product range covers ball bearings, roller bearings, and the seals, lubrication systems, and condition monitoring equipment that keep them running. SKF's technical service is legendary: its engineers pioneered vibration analysis to predict bearing failure before it happens. Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, with about 40,000 employees and annual revenue near SEK 100 billion (US$9.5 billion), SKF has spent decades diversifying beyond bearings into the complete rotating-equipment ecosystem — seals, lubricants, and digital monitoring. For machinery builders and industrial maintainers, SKF remains the default spec: the bearing brand that engineers specify when they cannot afford failure.
Also known as: SKF
