NSK’s assistance proved vital to a company experiencing repeat failures of bearings fitted to the roller assemblies of its steel wire drawing machinery. Thanks to the intervention of NSK, which identified the problem and recommended the optimal solution, the customer is witnessing costs savings in excess of €1.2 million a year.

A large manufacturer of automotive engines has significantly improved the reliability of its CNC machining centres by adopting NSK sealed spindle bearings that prevent the ingress of cutting fluid. The result is a sizeable reduction in costs associated with replacement bearings, maintenance labour and production downtime, saving the plant almost €191,000 per year.

Transportation ball screws are popular across industry as a cost-effective alternative to precision ground ball screws. The manufacturing process is ideal for applications that do not require the finite precision of a ground ball screw, but must still reliably transmit linear loads and provide high speed yet accurate positioning. For such applications, NSK’s transportantion ball screws – namely the PR/LPR and BS Interchangeable series – are in high demand.

When the world’s largest beverage can manufacturer was experiencing regular, unexpected production stoppages due to the premature failure of spray-head bearings in its coating machines, the company turned to the expertise of NSK. Recommending NSK deep groove ball bearings featuring VV series non-contact seals helped the plant to eliminate failures and achieve impressive annual savings of €240,000.

When a tyre manufacturer was enduring frequent failures of the ball screw within the air drum of its tyre building machine, the company turned to the expertise of NSK and its HTF series ball screw. By adopting this high-speed, high-load solution, the tyre plant was able to reduce its replacement ball screw purchases by two-thirds, delivering annual savings of €99,128.

World-renowned Spanish lathe manufacturer CMZ is lauding more than 25 years of high-level technological collaboration with linear motion and bearing specialist NSK. The company’s machines incorporate NSK innovations that include ground ball screws, linear guides and super-precision bearings. This ongoing partnership helps to consolidate CMZ’s leading position in Europe, exporting over 80% of its production thanks to the high performance and efficiency of its lathes.

Regular bearing failures in a concrete floor manufacturing machine were leading to extensive downtime, costly lost production, and high maintenance costs. To rectify the problem, the customer turned to the expertise of NSK, which redesigned the wheel hub and stub axle assembly (with correctly specified bearings). This action reduced failure rates from 20 a year, to zero, providing savings for the customer of €68,607.

Applications that demand high running speeds, easy handling and long service life will benefit from NSK’s new four-point contact ball bearings.

NSK is currently developing a new and cost-effective way of preventing electrical erosion in the drivetrains of electric vehicles (EVs). Based on a unique method of producing a patented plastic over-moulding for deep groove ball bearings, EV manufacturers will make significant savings in comparison with expensive ‘hybrid’ bearings that feature insulating components made from ceramics.

NSK has developed a new type of ball screw that exhibits reduced motion errors to deliver higher surface finish quality for machine tools used in mould and die machining and other surface-critical applications. By eliminating or reducing the time needed for secondary burnishing or polishing applications, the new ball screw also contributes to higher productivity, while simultaneously reducing the amount of drive torque to save energy.