Thousands of counterfeit bearings, weighing a total of around 1.5 tonnes, have been seized by the West Yorkshire Trading Standards authority after a raid on a distributor in the county. Industrial and automotive bearings in 170 types and sizes were confiscated.
Members of SKF’s brand protection team who took part in the raid identified counterfeit versions of some of their company’s products. Bearings with other manufacturers’ names were also seized and these too are suspected of being non-genuine.

Each year, SKF takes part in more than 100 raids against retailers, distributors and manufacturers of counterfeit products around the world.

“Customers who accidentally purchase counterfeit products are being cheated financially, risk damage to their machinery and incur expensive downtime as a result,” warns SKF engineering manager, Paul Dysiewicz. “They may also be liable to third-party damages.”
Some of the counterfeit bearings seized in the West Yorkshire raid

If you think that you might have been sold counterfeit SKF products, there is a free smartphone app, called SKF Authenticate, that you can use to send photos of the suspect products to SKF for verification. The app is available from the Apple App Store or Google Play. You can also e-mail pictures of the bearings to genuine@skf.com.

SKF and with other bearings manufacturers have launched a counterfeit awareness campaign through the World Bearing Association (WBA).