10 Cast Net: Skf Luton

Thursday, 11 October 2012

Skf Luton

SKF was originally founded in Sweden in 1907, but quickly opened its first overseas sales office in London in 1910. The following year the company came to Luton, choosing a site on Leagrave Road to build a manufacturing facility for the production of bearings. These products are used in almost every piece of equipment with rotating parts; for example, in industrial machinery, printing presses, mining and quarrying systems, and in cars, trains and aircraft. Today, SKF is recognised as a global knowledge engineering company, with a wide range of products, of which bearings manufactured in the UK continue to form a key part. These products are now produced at the company’s purpose built Sundon plant and UK headquarters, which opened in 1936 – production at the Leagrave site ceased in 1977. The Sundon factory currently produces spherical and CARB toroidal roller bearings for heavy industrial applications; SKF also offers a range of support services from the Sundon site, including machine tool spindle repairs and the refurbishment of Taper Bearing Units (TBUs) for the railway industry. In addition, SKF has a number of other facilities across the UK; in Aberdeen for the delivery of maintenance strategy and services to the offshore oil and gas sector; in Gloucester for the manufacture of high performance bearings in the aerospace sector; and 11 centres across the UK for the production of custom engineered sealing solutions.