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Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth, climate change is happening, and the automotive industrial network is one of the main industries contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. SKF is an energy intensive business – directly using energy, mainly in the form of electricity and gas, in its operations around the world. In addition, SKF utilizes materials, predominantly steel, and services which can be energy and carbon intensive – such as transports and raw material in production and processing. The combined impact of these direct and indirect energy uses (scope 1, 2 and 3 upstream) generates an excess of over two million metric tons of CO2e per year. This figure would however be significantly higher were it not for the actions SKF has taken to reduce both energy and carbon intensity. In 2000, we were one of the first companies to actually start to report and set climate targets.

Bearing friction is a direct contribution to vehicle CO2 emissions. The friction is defined as the total resistance to rotation, resulting from the combination of rolling and sliding friction in the contact areas. First, friction reduction was approached from a theoretical standpoint by employing modeling and simulation techniques. Improvements identified in simulation were then used to: create a new set of design rules for the internal geometry of the bearing, introduce a new grease, develop new seals, also with the integration of labyrinth functions and an optimization of the preload range variation. In order to provide a reliable confirmation of the expected achievements, a new friction measurement methodology was also introduced.