AB SKF is a Swedish bearing and seal manufacturing company founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1907. The company manufactures and supplies bearings, seals, lubrication and lubrication systems, maintenance products, mechatronics products, power transmission products, condition monitoring systems and related services globally.
Engineer Sven Wingqvist, co-founder of SKF (1876-1953)
Industrialist Axel Carlander, co-founder of SKF (1869-1939)
SKF office in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1940
SKF building in Schweinfurt, Germany (2012).
A bearing is a machine element that constrains relative motion to only the desired motion and reduces friction between moving parts. The design of the bearing may, for example, provide for free linear movement of the moving part or for free rotation around a fixed axis; or, it may prevent a motion by controlling the vectors of normal forces that bear on the moving parts. Most bearings facilitate the desired motion by minimizing friction. Bearings are classified broadly according to the type of operation, the motions allowed, or the directions of the loads (forces) applied to the parts.
A ball bearing
Drawing of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Study of a ball bearing
Early Timken tapered roller bearing with notched rollers