SKF's Chicago Rawhide seals are precision manufactured to the highest levels of excellence to offer total solutions for diverse industrial maintenance and original equipment applications, so when André Weyers, SKF product manager: Seals, noticed a gradual drop in volume of sales, he suspected that piracy of the original CR seals was to blame. Soon leaking seals were being returned to SKF for warranty claims and André's suspicions were confirmed.
We examined the faulty seals and found that they were not CR products at all, but a close replica of our CR seals", explains André. "Some of these samples (reverse engineered products), were ostensibly similar to CR, even to being painted in the easily recognisable CR Green. Currently the seals piracy is limited to truck, trailer and earthmoving axle seals and, although piracy tends to be a national trend, the problem appears to be predominantly in KZN and Gauteng."
According to André, the leaking seals were analysed locally as well as at Chicago Rawhide's R&D department in the USA and manufacture of some of the pirate seals was traced to Turkish company, Torkez and SOG in Taiwan. The source of other pirated seals could be linked to a specific manufacturer.
Piracy had a negative financial impact on SKF during 2000/2003, but sales have since stabilised and show an upward trend. "One of the contributing factors to our increased sales is no doubt due to the fact that responsible fleet owners realise that a cheap product does not compensate for increased breakdowns caused by premature seal failure," says André.
"CR is well known both locally and overseas and customers associate CR and SKF with quality so when CR seals are perceived to be of sub-standard quality, our image suffers a blow", explains André. "However, we were prepared to assist where we could and have not only won back customers but have also gained a number of new customers; as some of the more disillusioned customers put it 'we have learnt an expensive lesson and we are still feeling the pain in the back pocket'. "We have also taken further steps to combat the piracy problem and to educate customers on the dangers and cost of pirated parts. SKF's extensive advertising campaign launched in 2004/2005 promotes the original CR product and spells out the advantages and benefits of using only original CR products. Piracy negatively affects not only suppliers of original parts but also the unsuspecting customer's pocket and productivity. Manufacturers and suppliers should make a concerted effort to stamp out this nationwide scourge", concludes André.
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