Focusing heavily on its own environmental impact, SKF has announced its range of BeyondZero products that have ‘significant environmental benefits’.
SKF’s sustainability engineers, who will review the data yearly, have validated the BeyondZero concept portfolio through a life cycle assessment to ensure that the products all deliver an environmentally efficient outcome.
Applications within the automotive sector include; SKF’s bus door actuator, with a reduced energy consumption of 80-90% it stands to save 1.9 tonnes CO2 /year. Other products include a low weight hub-bearing unit that reduces 0.25 g CO2 per km. Applied to a light-commercial vehicle with an annual mileage of 14,500 km, SKF state that the savings could be up to 3.6 kg CO2 per year.
The hub bearing kit comprises a flanged hub bearing unit constructed from a steel and aluminum mixture, that weighs around 30% less than a standard unit. Thus, in premium car applications, overall weight can be reduced by 1kg per axle, whilst in commercial vehicles; this figure rises to 3.5kg per axle.
Other items include in the BeyondZero portfolio include stop-start systems for four, and two, wheel applications that potentially can reduce CO2 emissions up to 15% and by around 14,500 tonnes respectively.
“The SKF BeyondZero portfolio is a major step for SKF in our development of solutions with reduced environmental impact for our customers. SKF products, solutions and services from our five technology platforms are already improving performance for our customers and enabling them to be more efficient,” said Tom Johnstone, SKF president and CEO. “The launch of these special BeyondZero portfolio solutions shows how further additional energy savings can be achieved and measured in specific applications. The BeyondZero portfolio fully complements and supports the existing range SKF offers for our customers.”
