Every little helps
March 1st 2007

Two years ago, Swedish manufacturer, SKF launched BeyondZero, an initiative in which it pledged that the energy savings provided by its products and solutions would be greater than its own energy consumption. Its new Energy Efficient bearings that save at least 30% energy consumption is an example of SKF putting its words into action

SKF has developed a new family of bearings that reduce energy consumption by at least 30% compared to standard ISO products. This new bearing family comprises the two bearing types that are the most used bearings in the world, deep groove ball bearings and tapered roller bearings.

"Starting with the most used bearings in the world we ensure that our solution can be used in most machines in most industries around the world. That way we provide the possibility of reducing the world's energy consumption and also reducing customer's energy costs", says Tom Johnstone, president and CEO of SKF.

SKF's Energy Efficient tapered roller bearing This bearing will deliver energy savings on average of at least 30% and will initially target industrial segments where applications exceed 1 MW power consumption. Such applications are in railway and transmissions in heavy industry, ships, wind energy, conveyors, and extruders. The initial size range will be 200 - 600 mm outside diameter and the first applications are expected to be in wind turbines.

As an example of the potential of these bearings consider all wind turbines operating in the world at the end of 2006.

If all bearings in the gearbox of all these turbines could be replaced by SKF Energy Efficient tapered roller bearings they would generate an estimated extra 770 million kWh per year. That is equivalent to the total energy consumption of 1 million Swedish households for one month.

SKF's Energy Efficient deep groove ball bearing This bearing will deliver energy savings of at least 30% in most applications. Initially the focus will be on lightly loaded applications and the first applications will be industrial electrical motors driving machinery in many segments. Production will initially cover the smaller diameter sized series.

As an example of the potential of these bearings consider that the energy consumption in industrial motor driven systems in USA and European Union is 1.36 million million kWh per year. If these motors used SKF Energy Efficient deep groove ball bearings the estimated savings would be 2,460 million kWh per year. This is equivalent to the total energy consumption of over 3 million Swedish households for one month.

BeyondZero SKF has gone one step further than carbon neutral, it has pledged to be carbon positive.

"Each of us has to make their own contribution to tackling climate change," explains SKF president and CEO, Tom Johnstone, who not only oversees a business that continually works to reduce its energy consumption, but explains it has also: "developed and can offer technical solutions that can significantly reduce energy consumption." For a number of years SKF has been working together with the, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT) to define new models to evaluate and measure the energy use of systems in order to improve energy efficiency and develop new solutions.

Speaking at a recent conference to mark SKF's 100th anniversary, David H. Marks, codirector of the (MIT) Lab for Energy and the Environment, urged that small initiatives can and will make a difference: "We can not wait 50 years for some magic silver bullet technology," David said, " "We have to learn to do more with less electricity now, renewables can not grow fast enough to make a dent in global energy consumption." Another example aside from its new bearings is at the EC parliament building in Brussels where SKF electromechanical actuators and control units allow self regulating sunblind systems to reduce consumption by 30-35% in the winter and 50% in the Summer.

The energy reduction is part of the consumption by the building's HVAC system and can reduce HVAC costs by an average of 40% per year. Considering that HVAC systems consume one third of the energy use in office buildings, the savings are quite significant. Typical savings for a 100,000 sq.m building have been estimated at 2.7 million kWh per year. That is the equivalent of the total energy consumption of 3,300 Swedish homes for one month.

Within its own facilities, SKF has undertaken a series of activities to continually save energy. From changing windows, improving insulation, detecting leaks of compressed air in piping systems, more efficient heating and ventilation, to new technologies for heat treatment and grinding, changing to green energy.

Through its BeyondZero initiative, SKF aims to reduce, not just its own, but also, the world's energy footprint, which as a commitment to the environment, speaks for itself.

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