CHENNAI: SKF India Ltd has said that it would expand the capacity of its Bangalore and Pune facilities this year. Speaking to newsmen in Chennai on Monday after launching the ‘‘SKF self-learning tools’’ Rakesh Makhija, managing director, SKF India said the company would invest around Rs 130 crore for the same.

In addition, SKF is also looking at putting up a new industrial bearing production line in Pune. ‘‘We will expand the capacity of SKF’s deep-groove ball bearing plant in Bangalore by 50 percent while the taper bearing facility in Pune will see a capacity increase of 40-50 percent. We will invest a large portion of the Rs 130 crore this year itself and expect to complete the expansion soon,’’ he added.

SKF will also step up its efforts to counter the growing number of duplicate and fake bearings in the market. According to Makhija, ‘‘duplication is like cancer. We need to tackle the menace at the beginning stage itself. In this regard we have conducted raids at several places and these steps have started paying off.’’

Earlier the company unveiled its SKF self-learning tools. The tools are basically computer-based training packages on condition monitoring and vibration analysis. ‘‘The purposes of these packages is to make learning effective by being modular, relevant and easy-to-use,’’ he said.

‘‘The tools are designed in such a way that users can learn various topics of their choice at their own pace. It is ideal for persons on the job and also for students aspiring for a career in condition monitoring and maintenance,’’ said N Raghavan, general manager, reliability systems, SKF India.

SKF is the first company to launch such self-learning packages and is looking at selling 30 licences in the first year. ‘‘We will eventually make the modules available online soon. Each package is priced between Rs 22,500-Rs 30,000. All these are part of our global endeavours to minimise friction in all moving objects,’’ said Makhija.

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