SKF to provide piston seals to Geely

G?TEBORG, Sweden – SKF has started to deliver bonded piston seals to Geely Automobile to equip the automatic transmission (6AT) for the GC6, Emgrande EC8 and first SUV Gleagle GX7 car models from Chinese automobile maker. The business agreement, worth over SEK 100 million ($15.67 million), call for SKF to deliver seals for around five years.

The seals are manufactured at SKF Sealing Solutions in Wuhu, China.

“Our development work with Geely for more efficient transmissions has given us the possibility to prove our skills and expertise,” said Tryggve Sthen, president, SKF Automotive. “Our local Chinese manufacturing and engineering footprint enables us to be close to Geely and respond quickly to their needs.”

The bonded piston seal is designed to offer robustness against damage during assembly or operation enabling pro-longed life. This seal also enables the possibility to reduce the weight of the application using a steel piston solution.

“The bonded piston seal solution from SKF now enables our transmissions to be even more robust, with higher performance. Our cooperation is very beneficial to us and we are very satisfied to work with SKF as an engineering partner. Geely is moving to the premium segment of cars so it is important to cooperate with high quality brands like SKF,” said Shaoquan Zhao, purchasing director, Geely Automotive.

SKF seals meet the very tough demands Geely requires and the Binjiang District, Hangzhou, China headquartered automobile manufacturer recently recognized SKF with the “Excellent Supplier Award”.

We are truly happy about this and it inspires us in our continued work to deliver the right value,” Mr Sthen said.

SKF (STO:SKFB) (STO:SKFA) is a leading global supplier of bearings, seals, mechatronics and lubrication systems in more than 130 countries and has around 15,000 distributor locations worldwide. The Swedish company also provides services, which include technical support, maintenance and reliability services, engineering consulting and training.