When a long-standing customer in the platinum mining space required urgent assistance to salvage its spherical roller bearings, SKF readily came to the fore. Through its in-depth remanufacturing expertise and capabilities, SKF was able to successfully refurbish twelve pallets of bearings for the customer.

The subsequent replenished bearing stock not only delivers substantial savings on Capex but also improves operational uptime for the mine in Limpopo.

“As a global bearing and rotating technology specialist, SKF is committed to delivering best-in-class solutions to meet our customers’ individual requirements,” says SKF Account Engineer, Reinhardt Joubert. “We work in close collaboration with our Authorised Distributors who are located close to our customers and we recognise that they are the face of SKF. Therefore, over the past five years we have poured a lot of drive and focus into growing and upskilling their sales teams so that they are aligned with world-class SKF product and service quality.”

In Q1 2019, SKF authorised distributor, Bearing Services Lydenburg, was contacted by the customer who, due to limited storage space, had no option but to store their bearings outside where they were exposed to sun, wind and rain for an extended period of time.

Well-equipped with this SKF knowledge, Lucky Mgiba from Bearing Services Lydenburg advised the mine of the value and financial benefits offered by remanufacture compared to the costly exercise of purchasing new replacement units.

Acknowledging these advantages, the customer readily agreed with Mgiba’s suggestion to have the bearings inspected by SKF specialists at the company’s Reman Centre in Jet Park, Johannesburg, to determine the service level of each bearing.

Of the 29 spherical roller bearings that were assessed, SKF was able to remanufacture 23 units back to OEM quality. This also meant that the customer only had to purchase six new bearings, keeping overall costs to a minimum.

Thanks to SKF’s cost-effective remanufacturing solution, the customer is able to draw from these OEM quality bearings ex-stock as and when required, reducing running and maintenance costs as well as improving uptime for the mine.

SKF and Bearing Services Lydenburg share a solid, long-term relationship with this key customer who utilises a number of SKF products on the mine including a pinion running on a SKF South Africa bespoke solution, a SYSTEM 24 automatic lubricator as well as a variety of power transmission products such as sprockets, pulleys and V-belts. “Our premium remanufacturing capabilities have served to further cement the mine’s trust in SKF’s abilities and the project has also strengthened our relationship with our Authorised Distributor,” concludes Joubert.