SKF Taiwan Launches Solution Factory for Integrated Technical Services

Concentrating SKF knowledge

Despite the worldwide economic recession, SKF Bearing Services Taiwan Ltd. held a ceremony on Nov. 9, 2009 to celebrate the inauguration of a solution factory in Taichung, central Taiwan. The new facility offers integrated technical services to clients from a variety of industries.

Hosted by SKF Taiwan managing director Charles Chang, the inaugural ceremony was witnessed by Chung Bee Kek, managing director of SKF Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., based in Singapore. Chung is in charge of the Swedish SKF Group's operations in the Asia-Pacific region. The ceremony was attended by more than 100 industry leaders and loyal customers, including those representing the China Steel Corp., Cheng Loong Corp., and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp.

Based on five technical platforms--bearings and units, lubrication systems, seals, mechanics, and services--the solution factory is a concentration of SKF knowledge resources that offers much more than just products in a box. “For example,” explained Vartan Vartanian, president of the SKF Service Division, “a customer who has previously purchased only bearings and seals from SKG can raise the bar and ask us to help cut operational costs or improve availability, or just about anything else to make their plants run more efficiently. We are not saying we are experts in every single facet of the lifecycle. It is just that we understand so much more than most of our customers realize, and we want them to challenge us and demand more.”

“Thanks to the establishment of solution factories worldwide,” stated Chung at the ceremony, “we can help our clients cut operational costs and improve efficiency and availability, instead of only delivering bearings and seals to them. Our commitment is to help them become more competitive, and the solution factory is providing this support in one place.”

For over 100 years SKF has provided top-quality products in industry. As a global knowledge engineering company, SKF is at work throughout the world in diverse applications, from energy wind farms, offshore oil rigs, aircraft flight control systems, steel and paper mills, and high-speed trains to washing machines and millions of motorcycles, trucks, and cars.

Asset Management Service

In addition to the solution factory, SKF is also promoting its asset management service (AMS), providing integrated solutions for plant-wide reliability. Chung said the AMS is suitable for many industries such as petrochemicals, foodstuffs, paper, and iron and steel, which strongly demand a safety environment in operations. In the Asia-Pacific region, SKF has helped the petrochemical industry in Indonesia install the AMS.

Chung noted that his company has promoted the AMS for four years in China and two years in Indonesia; in Taiwan, the service is employed by a large oil-refining firm.

“The SKF solution factory Taichung can offer solutions based on bearing remanufacturing service, spindle service, customized product service, remote diagnostics, customized sealing solutions, lubrication oil station assembly, and more,” said SKF Taiwan managing director Charles Chang. “The ultimate objective of the solution factory is to fully fulfill the technical service capabilities extending from the SKF five technical platforms.”

Costing more than NT$10 million, the SKF solution factory is the eighth of its kind worldwide, with two others in China, one in Sweden, one in Brazil, one in Italy, one in South Africa, and one in India. By the end of this year, the SKF Group will have 10 solution factories scattered throughout the world.

More Than a Solution Factory

Just a five-minute drive from the newly launched solution factory, SKF Taiwan has also established a second plant to offer technical services in tandem with the development of sophisticated key components for industrial use, including 24,000rpm high-speed spindles, various other kinds of spindles, and a Hi-Lub system.

SKF Taiwan says the Hi-Lub system is designed to provide much better lubrication for various kinds of spindles by supplying air and oil is evenly to inner rings through a small circular gap. The taper shoulder of the inner ring also helps, with a pumping function, facilitate oil transfer to rolling elements. There is no need to adjust the hole position when assembling spindle because of the circular groove of the Hi-Lub system with O-rings (see diagram below).

In addition to the development and production of sophisticated key components and parts to fill the needs of domestic industries, SKF Taiwan can also help its local clients carry out repair and maintenance work in an effective way, thanks to the dedication of its in-house engineers. (Nov. 2009)