Manufacturing, chemical processing, food and beverage, construction, mining, oil and gas, agriculture, and power generation industries all employ the use of turbomachinery. Reliability and minimizing downtime are critical in these applications. Rolling bearings are integral to the operation of pumps and compressors and must be able to withstand moderate to heavy loading and harsh operating environments. A wide variety of ball, roller, and needle bearings can be found in these machines; however, this article will focus on the most common type of bearing used, the deep groove ball bearing.

NTN Bearing Corporation of America is proud to share its story of support for a local animal rescue. On Thursday, November 16th, NTN donated a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van with its cargo hold full of supplies to Wright-Way Rescue, but it didn’t happen without a bit of good fortune.

NTN, the parent company of BCA Bearings and Bower Bearings, is proud to announce the receipt of a 2023 Automotive Communications Award from Women in Auto Care. NTN received the award in the “Business-to-Business – Promotional Goods, Gear, Marketing Collateral” category for its BCA and Bower “Summer Cruisin” Promotions.

The Timken Company has reached an agreement to acquire Engineered Solutions Group (a.k.a. Innovative Mechanical Solutions or iMECH), based in Houston, Texas. iMECH manufactures thrust bearings, radial bearings, specialty coatings and other components primarily used in the energy industry. The business employs approximately 70 people and projects revenue of approximately $30 million for calendar year 2023.  

NKE Austria GmbH presents its bearings for railway applications. The bearings are used in traction motors and locomotive gearboxes as well as in railcars, trams and underground trains.

SKF has played its part in securing a new world record: the furthest distance travelled by a prototype motorcycle on a single tank of fuel. The prototype bike clocked up 4,183.8 km on its journey from Albino in northern Italy to North Cape in Norway – without needing to refuel. SKF helped motorcycle components supplier Acerbis in its AC50 project to design the two-wheeler.

VesArg, the Argentinian distributor of Vesconite, Vesconite Hilube and Vesconite Superlube low-friction bearing materials, is proud to announce the acceptance of the Vesconite Hilube needle-bearing kit for the Peugeot Partner and Citroen Berlingo, with VesArg having sold 500 kits for these vehicles in the last two years. This innovative solution addresses the recurring problem of suspension arm issues in these popular utility vehicles, which often require replacement needle-roller bearings.

By definition, a spherical roller bearing (SRB) is a rolling element bearing that permits rotation with low friction and permits angular misalignment. SRBs consist of spherical rolling elements, an outer ring, a cage as well as an inner ring with two raceways inclined at an angle to the bearing axis. SRB technology has landed the component in unique applications including high pressure grinding rolls (HPGRs), pipelaying ships, Ferris wheels and even a Cold War–era marine espionage mission.

NTN is pleased to announce that two of its North American manufacturing facilities have been recognized for supplier quality excellence by Toyota Motor North America (Toyota). Toyota has awarded NTN Driveshaft, Inc., and American NTN Bearing Manufacturing Corporation each with a Certificate of Achievement for receiving an “A” grade for supplier quality in 2022.

With an innovative technology package from SKF, Ningbo Rail Transit has extended the service life of critical refurbished bearings on eight trainset vehicles from 800,000 to 1 million km. The project is the first commercial application of SKF’s Insight Metro wireless condition monitoring system, which has been developed in China specifically for the needs of the domestic rail sector.