WHAT ARE THE BEST BEARING BRANDS? EXPERT INSIGHTS

Join us on "Wiki Bearings" as we unravel the age-old question: What is the best bearing brand? In this episode, our expert host Hassanein Alwan goes deep into the world of bearings to provide you with invaluable insights and recommendations.

From industry giants to emerging contenders, we leave no stone unturned in our quest to identify the top bearing brands. Drawing on decades of combined experience and expertise, our hosts offer candid assessments and unbiased opinions to help you navigate the vast landscape of bearing manufacturers.

Whether you're a seasoned engineer seeking quality and reliability or a hobbyist exploring new possibilities, this episode is your definitive guide to finding the perfect bearing brand for your needs. Tune in now and let us empower you with the knowledge to make informed decisions.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to Wiki bearings, where we dive into the worlds of engineering excellence, from the automotive marvels to the industrial giants. Join us to explore the wonders that keeps the world in motion. My name is Hassan Alwan, and I'm your host.

In today's episode, we're going to talk about the best bearing brand in the market, a question that no one is willing to answer. What is the best bearing brand? In the world today, we're going to talk about six brands that is covering the premium segment of the market. Of course, there are thousands of smaller players, specialized companies, and so on.

Bidding is a sophisticated industry. That requires years of experience to perfect the bearing production from the steel manufacturing to the details, to the [00:01:00] turning heat treatment lubrication name. It, it's a whole range of, of iteration to perfect that small bearing that we use every day. Globally, there are few companies that dominate the market, at least the premium market.

Now, there are many other specialized bearing companies that are specialized sometimes in linear motion, split bearings, needle roller bearings, and many other specialized industries. But we're going to today talk about The six best brands in the market and these brands are the ones that are having the widest range and they covers most of the industry.

Now, all of these brands are well known and they have some of them have more than 100 years of experience in this industry. Some of them are even started before this [00:02:00] century, 1988 and so on. Let's start with the first company. Svenska Kulagerfabriken, SKF, a well known Swedish company established in 1907.

One of the largest and the oldest bearing manufacturer. More than a hundred years of experience. Sven Winqvist, or Sven Winqvist, a Swedish engineer invented the self aligning ball bearing, and he is considered the founder and the guru behind the SKF company. The company has a wide range of automotive and industrial bearings.

They are well known, not only exploring Earth, but exploring the space. It says that Apollo mission lunar landers had SKF bearings, and you can see that technological advancement. Today, SKF is doing more than 10 billion of business, and they are available in more than 40 locations in the world. [00:03:00] Moving to Japan, let's talk about NTN, or what we call it, NTN Corporation.

Of course, it's a Japanese based company established in 1918. It is the first company in Japan to produce ball bearings, has supplied precision bearings for use in JAXA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, for satellite and exploration missions. NTN owns many well known brands in the market. Recently they acquired, not recently, like 15 maybe years ago, they acquired SNR and they own as well, Bauer and BCA, the two American well known brands.

Today, NTN is doing six, 7 billion of business. That is depends on how we count the yen. So if we look at today's yen, it's maybe 6 billion. If you look last year's yen, it's maybe more than 7 billion. Scheffler Group, a German family owned business, [00:04:00] one of the few, and probably the only company in among the six big boys that is a family owned.

This company was founded in 1946 and today owns many well known brands like Ena, FAG, and Luke. Well known player in the bearing market with full range of bearings and power transmission products for automotive and the industry. Sheffler has also made significant contribution to the motor sports, particularly in Formula E, the electric street racing series.

The company developed an innovative electric drive system for the Audi Sport ABT Sheffler team. Today, Sheffler is doing 14 billion, or if we look at 12 billion euros, 12. 4, 12. 6, depending on the exchange rate. Another important Japanese company, Nippon Saikou [00:05:00] KK, the short name for NSK. NSK is, of course, a Japanese company, as the name says, founded in 1916.

Again, it's a well known company and with a long history. Takahiko Yamashina, the founder of NSK, initially had a deep interest in reviving the traditional art of Japanese world making. Yet, as Japan industrial landscape began to expand, he saw a significant opportunity and shifted the focus from swords to manufacture bearings.

In 2021, NSK did 720 billion Japanese yen, which is in today exchange rates, something around 6 billion. And it is one of the Three big players in Japan in the bearing industry. The third players is Koyo, or what we call them today, [00:06:00] JTEC. Koyo was established in 1921 and today JTEC owns Koyo and they have some other brands under them.

JTEC is a Japanese company that owns the Koyo brands, bearing, uh, Koyo brands in the bearing business. JTICT was formed through the merger of Koyo Saiko and Toyota Machine Works, not Toyota, but Toyota, in 2006. Actually, Toyota Machine Works used to be part of the Toyota Group. As you see the name, there are lots of similarities in the name.

And this explains the close relation between JTICT and Toyota. As a supplier customer. So J. Tech today supply a lots off automotive components for Toyota cars and many automotive bearings are today produced in cooperation with coil. If we look at J. Tech as a group today doing something roughly around 12 billion, [00:07:00] I would estimate the coil business to be something around 4 billion.

Last but not least, let's talk about Timken is an American manufacturer. Timken was founded in 1899, the oldest company of all the bearing company by Henry Timken. Henry Timken, a carriage builder who invented the taper roller bearing to solve the problem for frequent wagon breakdown. In the early days, Timken had almost 90 percent of the U.

S. market for taper roller bearings. Thanks. But they were mainly focusing on the tapers in recent three years, Tim can understood they cannot compete in this in this global market without expanding their range and focusing only on taper roller bearing will not do the game. So Tim can put a very steep growth target.

And starting to acquire well-known brands in [00:08:00] the industry. Example is Philadelphia Gear in 2011, Roland Group, uh, 2018. And as you can, as you know, it is a linear motion specialist, uh, Damon Chain Company in 2019. It is a chain manufacturer and beca lubrication in 2019. Specialized in lubrication system and auto lubrication system.

Now, Timken is one of the big player in the bearing world with estimated turnover 4. 7 billion U. S. dollars. These are the six main players in the bearing world. All of them offer wide range of products that cover many industries. Automotive, industrial, agricultural. Of course, there are many smaller and more specialized bearing manufacturers that focus on some specific ranges, or are more into a niche side of the business.

Can [00:09:00] be eccentric, can be split bearings, can be linear motion, and so on. Nachi is one of them. It's a company that focus on ball bearings. Of course, it's a Japanese manufacturer. Nash was established in 1928 in Toyama city in Japan. And throughout these years, they have focused primarily on ball bearings, spherical roller bearing, and some clutch bearings.

In the past few years, they saw the significant growth of robotics, and now the company is very much focused on robotics and automation. And they started also outsourcing some of their automotive production. If we look at today, Timken is doing something like 2 billion, not so bad for a few ranges. Other companies in the specialized space like THK or Highwind, these are more linear motion company.

THK is a Japanese brand that [00:10:00] specializes in linear motion products, including linear bearing, linear guides, and a curator. They are known for their precision and innovation in the field of linear motion. If we look at Hiwin, it's a Taiwanese manufacturer recognized for their wide range of linear motion products, including linear guideways, bolt screws, and linear bearings.

It's one of the only well known Taiwanese company in the bearing business. Other industries like linear, like needle roller bearings, two Japanese names will come to the mind, IKO and JNS, specialize in needle rollers. And linear motion as well. But of course, needle roller bearings and linear motion are produced by many of the big boys.

ENA, NTN, SKF and so on. So they are not the only bearing or needle roller bearing manufacturer. Last but not least, let's talk about split bearing. There are only three [00:11:00] companies that are dominating this niche market. Cooper, Revolve and Bowman. These brands are very, very niched into split bearings, cylindrical, sphericals, and so on.

They're purely into the industry. Today, SKF own Cooper brand. It was acquired in the past few years. Cooper is a well known brand and manufacturer for split roller bearings. Of course, if we look at it, Timken acquired, uh, in the past, Revolve offering as well split bearings and split cylindrical roller bearings.

These are the two well known brands in that, and they are the main competitors, the main players in this industry. Other companies, NTN, NSK, and some SKF still do some of these split bearings, but they're not doing that as a wide range. They do [00:12:00] some, some of these, but these companies are the ones that are specialized in split bearings.

If we look at the latest player in this, in this market, we have to mention Bowman. Bowman is a new player in the market. They are using 3D printing as their competitive edge, so they cut cost and deliver much faster, like they cut cost and time using 3D technology to print these bearings. It's a UK based company.

It's a very interesting company to look at. They are the latest comers in this, in split bearings. Now we looked at the top six players in the bearing market, S-K-F-F-A-G-N-S-K, Coyo. Timken and Scheffler. As I said, there are many smaller players, specialists in the industry, and they focus on very niche markets.

Of course, if you would like us to cover some. Brands or some special [00:13:00] industry or some special segments don't hesitate to contact us or to leave a comment. We are here to help you and look at the different bearing brands. Now let's look at what is the best bearing brand for you? What is the best bearing brand for your customer?

What is the best bearing brand for you as a company? Could be an end user, if you are a sugar manufacturer, or if you are a supplier in this In the industry or for the automotive engineering, what is the right bearings for you or the right brands for you? Now, if we look at it, I would summarize it. The best bearing company for you would be the company that can offer you the right bearing at the right price at the right time, but with the right technical know how and support.

You need these elements. You need the balance of these elements without that you wouldn't know. And without that will not be the best bearing brand for you today. There [00:14:00] is a jungle of brands. There is so many distributor. There are so many companies, but this is the balance you have. And if you look at around you, if you look at, if you have any distributor that have one of these well known brands.

and they can give you the right pairings at the right time at the right price with the right support. These are the best company for you or the best brand. Now, of course, every brand have a strength and have its weakness. Japanese tends to have a very long delivery time. So this is can be, but they tend to be also very cost effective.

European have much more. wider range, wider support, and so on. This would give you, each brand would have their niche and segments and strength. As we saw, Timken is strong in taper roller bearings, NTN is strong in maybe ball bearings, needles, and so on. Every company would have that niche that they are strong in.

So depending on your industry, [00:15:00] Depending where is your most important brand. So if you are in the automotive for Japanese cars, then probably one of the three Japanese NTN or NSK or Koya would be the right bearing brand for you. If you are in, let's say truck business and you're looking for taper roller bearings, then NTN and Timken are very good brands for you.

So it's difficult to say what is the best bearing brand for you, but I would say looking at your market, looking at your segment, looking at your local distributors, this is how you choose the balanced choice for your bearings. We at Mineral Circles Bearing would love to hear from you. If you have any comments of what we said, if you would like to know more about any episodes or anything, around bearings, power transmission, electrical vehicles, and so on.

Please don't hesitate to contact us. And we [00:16:00] are here to help you. And we are here to give you the best bearing brand for you. And that wraps another episode of Wiki Bearings. Don't forget to subscribe for more insight into the fascinating realm of the engineering innovation. Until next time, keep spinning towards greatness.