1899: Wingqvist became employed as an operating engineer at Gamlestadens Textile Industry in Göteborg. He worked here for many years to find a solution to the problems with frequent break downs in the ball bearings for the main drive shafts. This was caused by the ground conditions, as the factory was built on lots of clay. The shaft bearing supports moved some fractions of millimeters from time to time, hardly measurable, but enough to induce enormous extra forces in the "stiff" bearings that were available at that time. Wingqvist spent more and more time on the development of bearings in general, collecting all sorts of technical achievements and new ideas that were presented continuously on ball bearing technology around Europe. In particular he carefully studied the report presented in 1902 by professor Richard Stribeck working at the Institute of Technology in Dresden, Germany, where he had compared ball bearings versus plain bearings from a scientific point of view. Wingqvist soon realized that ball bearings had a future and that there was room for innovation. On his initiative a small workshop was set up within the premises of the Gamlestadens factory where they could carry out tests with different designs and steel materials. In 1906 he was granted a patent for a Single-row self-aligning ball bearing, Swedish patent reg. No. 24160, but this type of bearing had the disadvantage that it was poor for axial loads. He continued to work in order to find a solution for a self-aligning bearing that also could carry axial loads.
1907: On the initiative of Sven Wingqvist and the owners of Gamlestadens Textile Industry, SKF was founded February 16, at first as a subsidiary company to Gamlestadens Textile Industry. He was appointed the managing director as well as technical manager. Axel Carlander, son of one of the owners of Gamlestadens Textile Industry, was appointed CEO for SKF.. On May 21, SKF filed the patent application at the Swedish Patent and Registration Office for a Multi-row self-aligning radial ball bearing. The patent was granted June 6 with patent reg. No. 25406. Inventor: S.G. Wingqvist. In the patent application a double-row as well as a triple-row ball bearing is described. Within the same period of time, patent applications were sent out by SKF to 10 different countries, among them France, Germany, England and the United States, and patent was granted in all these countries within a short time. The door was now open for worldwide expansion. After the new factory had been built in Göteborg, SKF sales companies and new manufacturing plants were built in many countries around the world. The first SKF manufacturing plant outside Sweden was set up in Luton, England 1911.
1919: Wingqvist marries Hildur Hult.
1919–1932: Wingqvist works as an independent consulting engineer and as part-time CEO for SKF.
