Contract puts bearings in Dreamliner engines

SKF Aeroengine UK has won a major new order to produce bearings for the latest member of the Rolls-Royce Trent engine family, the Trent 1000.

SKF Aeroengine UK has won a major new order to produce bearings for the latest member of the Rolls-Royce Trent engine family, the Trent 1000, which is available to power the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Worth several million pounds over a five year period, the new order will provide an important boost to the company, helping to safeguard the long term future of jobs at its Stonehouse plant and offering longer term potential for new engineering and factory employment.

SKF Aeroengine develops and manufactures specialised bearings and other high performance components at its Stonehouse factory, for use in a wide range of civil and military aircraft, and motorsport applications.

The company has worked closely with Rolls-Royce for many years and was originally one of two bearings suppliers selected for the engineering development phase of the new Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines.

Now, SKF Aeroengine has been appointed as the sole supplier of bearings for the first production phase of the Trent 1000 until 2012.

The Trent 1000 has been selected as the launch engine for the 787, which is due to enter service in 2008 with Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA).

Steve Chittock, European Director for SKF Aeroengine, explains: "This is an exciting and important order for the company and we're delighted to be appointed as sole supplier of bearings to Rolls-Royce, and to be so closely associated with such a prestigious project".

The Rolls-Royce order comes shortly after a period of major investment at SKF Aeroengine's Stonehouse factory, with over GBP 1 million being spent recently on new machine tools and production systems as part of a continuous programme designed to keep the company at the leading edge of manufacturing excellence, while retaining traditional engineering and design expertise.

Chittock adds: "We invest heavily in staff training and development programmes to sustain and develop one of the most highly skilled workforces anywhere in Europe, ensuring that we're combining the latest practices with production techniques that have been perfected over many years; indeed, the success that we have experienced with Rolls-Royce can be directly attributed to the excellence of our entire workforce, including design, engineering, manufacturing and customer support teams".

The Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine has been selected as the launch engine for all three variants of the 787, and Boeing has already announced over 400 orders.

As a result, the future for SKF Aeroengine, the Stonehouse factory and jobs in the Gloucestershire area looks particularly bright.

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