Editing SKF (section)

=== World War II to the present day ===
During the [[World War II|Second World War]], Sven Wingvist was CEO of SKF and [[Jacob Wallenberg]] was member of the company's board of SKF directors. The Wallenberg-owned ball-bearing multinational, SKF, supplied the German military with ball-bearings and ball-bearing machines, and had a monopoly on it in Europe. SKF also supplied the [[Allies]] with ball-bearings. SKF's ball-bearings were Sweden's most important strategic contribution to German war production. In the spring of 1944, the Swedish government, along with the Wallenbergs, promised the Allies that the export of ball-bearings would cease.{{cn|date=September 2024}} However, SKF continued to export. When this could not be done legally, the ball-bearings were smuggled to Germany. As late as 1945, SKF sold ball-bearing steel and ball-bearing machines to Hitler. It has been estimated that the supply of ball-bearings prolonged World War II by two years. SKF actively worked to cut off the supply of ball-bearings to the defense industry in the US and instead supplied products from its American factories to Nazi Germany through subsidiaries in South America.{{cn|date=September 2024}} 

In order to expand its international business, SKF decided in 1966 it needed to use the English language. Senior officials, although mostly still Swedish, all learned English in all major internal documents were in English, the lingua franca of multinational corporations.<ref>Christopher Tugendhat, ''The Multinationals'' (1973) p 147.</ref>  In the 1970s SKF embarked on a massive production rationalisation program in Europe. A visionary project, "Production Concept for the 80s" was launched with the aim to run the night shifts practically unmanned.  To increase productivity and safeguard the product quality, a continuous, automatic flow of bearing rings was needed, so SKF developed the FlexLink brand. FlexLink created the multiflex plastic chain conveyor system to solve the business requirements. SKF divested FlexLink as a separate company in 1997.

Today, SKF Group continues to be a global leader in the manufacture and maintenance of increasingly advanced bearings, such as the SKF Explorer and SKF Energy Efficient (E2).