SKF today inaugurated its Global Technical Centre in Bengaluru, India (GTCI). The opening of GTCI further reinforces SKF's strategy both to bring technology development closer to its customers and to utilise fully its global footprint and resources to develop product innovations across its five technology platforms - bearings, seals, mechatronics, lubrication systems and services.

"India and SE Asia are very important markets for SKF. The opening of this centre further reinforces our commitment to support our customers in these fast developing markets by bringing our core research and development close to them. This will enable us to develop new products to support their unique requirements," says Tom Johnstone, SKF President and CEO. He further comments, "The addition of this centre strengthens our focus on developing new products and solutions built on our long standing commitment to world leading research and innovation. One of our driving forces is to develop and deliver new products and solutions which offer significant energy and carbon savings to our customers."

The opening of GTCI is part of SKF's technology strategy to develop a global product development and engineering organization. The new Global Technical Center will incorporate the existing Global Testing Center, opened in 2009 and the Application Development Centre, opened in 2004, both of which are located in Bengaluru. In 2010, SKF opened a Global Technical Center in China.

Alan Begg, SKF Senior Vice President Group Technology and Development explains, "As the knowledge engineering company, SKF's strategy is to provide advanced solutions for our customers based on our knowledge of components, assemblies and systems. Having our development close to our customers enables us to be faster and more efficient in supporting their needs." He further adds, "GTCI is part of our global network of research and development centres in Europe, North America and Asia, all working to SKF's global design standards."

SKF invested around SEK 75 million in GTCI. It will employ approximately 400 engineers in the areas of product engineering and development, as well as laboratories for testing metallurgy, chemistry and bearing performance analysis. GTCI will have a strong focus on serving customers in India and South East Asia, as well as global projects for SKF.