SKF SA’s engineered solutions and circularity
Janus Bezuidenhout, Application Engineering Manager for SKF South Africa, discusses SKF's lifecycle services strategy for supporting the African continent, which starts with engineered, locally manufactured customisations and extends to include a comprehensive range of lifecycle management and life extension services that ensure long-term value, reliability and sustainability.
J anus Bezuidenhout joined SKF in 2013 as a project engineer. “Before that, I worked for a company called Henred Fruehauf, part of SA Truck Bodies, as a design en- gineer for truck axles and suspension systems. I qualified as a Mechanical Engineer from the University of Pretoria with a specialisation in maintenance and reliability, so I have always found SKF a good fit for my skills and interests,” he tells MCA . He began his SKF journey in the Project Engineering division. “Back then, the Engineering Department at SKF was still split into two: Applications Engineering and Project Engineering. Application engineering typically handled technical issues, assisted customers with designs and technical inquiries, and con- ducted failure analyses, among other tasks. At that time, Project Engineering was responsible for customised solutions here in South Africa. “For many years, we have relied on local suppliers to manufacture components for our South African clients to enable us to deliver customised designs to meet niche requirements. In Southern Africa, we often have to supply re- placement bearing solutions based on designs from the 1940s, for ageing plant equipment still in use today. So whenever customers can’t find what they need in a catalogue, SKF South Africa can help by manufacturing a housing, seals and any other non-standard elements, and locally assembling a bearing to meet the requirement,” he explains. As a project engineer, Bezuidenhout worked with high-hitting customers on in-depth projects, not just in South Africa, but also in Australia, Europe, and the Asia region. “In 2017, I took the role of Senior Project Engineer, and I became the Project Engineering Team Leader in 2019. “Then, in 2020, COVID hit, we moved into a new building, and we had to restructure. Within the global SKF Group, Project Engineering is not well known. It was a service unique to South Africa. So we decided to integrate the project engineering and application engineering teams into a single Applications Engineering Division while maintaining all the core services we have always offered,” Bezuidenhout explains, adding that local customisations and local manufactur-
An SKF South Africa customised and manufactured dual-bearing housing unit ready for installation at a plant in South Africa.
For horizontal grinding mills, SKF South Africa can custom-engineer and locally manufacture mill pinion housing assemblies.
ing remain key performance indicators within the team.
to the whole of Africa. We currently target and support key countries. Still, if there are needs and opportunities in any other African coun- tries, we are willing and able to respond,” he con- tinues, adding that SKF application engineers have been appointed to support the Northwest Africa and Central East African regions, and there are now seven engineers operating out
SKF’s One Africa strategy “Now, from an engineering perspective, SKF South Africa is not only supporting South and Southern Africa, but we are also responsible for delivering Application Engineering support
14 ¦ MechChem Africa • March-April 2026
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