Henk Kapaan is your consultant for mechanical engineering activities and since 2009-10 known and active under the internet domain name “support-innovatie.com” (Support Innovatie). Henk creates on request of sponsors Ideas & Concepts for the renewal and/or new automotive and industrial products and systems and is also active as consultant to solve mechanical engineering problems. To achieve optimal results for the sponsor he frequently participates in company brain-storming sessions and in medium term and long term development projects.
Prior to these activities, Henk was employed for a period of 38 years in various different positions by the SKF Group and for 25 of those years he worked at the SKF Engineering & Research Centre (ERC) in Nieuwegein - The Netherlands.
As Head of the Design Office and later as Manager Technical Services he was, amongst other things, involved and responsible for the development of testing equipment and tools for ball bearing and roller bearing products and for systems for various applications. Besides developing special testing equipment and bearing systems, Henk was also responsible, as Project Manager, for the development of special hardening processes for bearing materials.
During the last 13 years of his employment with the SKF Group Henk worked as Manager Concept Development for the SKF Automotive Development Centre (ADC), also located in Nieuwegein. He was responsible for the medium and long term development of bearings and bearing systems for passenger car and truck applications, varying from wheel bearing systems to driveline systems.
Because of his knowledge and expertise in bearing design, bearing application, bearing specification and the integration of the latest technological developments of electronic control and monitoring devices, all the mechanical functions were able to be designed and built for the first Drive by Wire car - the FILO - developed by SKF and Bertone. In these by wire functions, (Steer by Wire, Brake by Wire and Clutch by Wire) the E-motor rotations are converted into linear motions.
Topics not directly linked to bearings were also investigated in order to create new concepts like brake systems, variable transmissions, hybrid drives, etc. During his period with the SKF Group Henk was well recognised as a team player with a great deal of international experience and with an extensive technical network. This is borne out by the fact that he is named as inventor or co-inventor in more than 140 patent applications filed by SKF.
On August 1 2009 Henk voluntarily took early retirement and started october 2009 his activities under the internet domain name “support-innovatie.com”. He has remained a team player and built up a network of a number of specialists with different disciplines who can provide additional technical support, if required.
