World War Two Ball Bearing Production

[Hanno Spoelstra]

This SKF - Made in Germany ball bearing came up on another forum:

Ok guys, I know that Sweden exported bearings to Germany, I also know Germany had bearing factories. I'm also very well aware of the fact that they wrote "made in Germany" on things. BUT, my question is: Did SKF (Svenska Kullagerfabriken) have production facilities in Germany??
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My response:
Check out the official SKF history timeline here: https://www.skf.com/group/organisati...story-timeline
“1921: Seven German ball bearing factories acquired. A new company formed in Germany - Vereinigte Kugellagerfabriken A.G. Production concentrated to Schweinfurt and Cannstatt.
1938: New ball bearing factory built outside Berlin.”
Nothing to report in Germany during 1939-1945. Then in 1948: “Post-war production began slowly in Schweinfurt and Cannstatt.”

And from https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven...lagerfabriken: “Von 1929 bis 1953 hieß die SKF in Deutschland Vereinigte Kugellagerfabriken AG (VKF), mit Hauptsitz in Schweinfurt.”

So, it is unlikely one will find wartime bearings with “SKF made in Germany” inscription. A wartime bearing marked “VKF” may be found, although I suspect they used a factory code rather than a name to confuse Allied intelligence.

SKF itself does not publish a lot about its wartime exports, but historic research has proved that Sweden's export of ball-bearings to Germany during the Second World War attracted remarkably intensive international attention even at the time - read https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/....1975.10407803