NSK has signed a contract with the electricity provider of its two UK manufacturing facilities in Newark (industrial bearings and linear guides) and Peterlee (automotive bearings) that ensures the supply of ‘green electricity’ generated from wind power. In other words, the provider confirms that it is producing green electricity from renewable sources to match the consumption demands of NSK’s UK-based plants.

NSK has used its extensive problem-solving capabilities and experience to provide mines and quarries with the solution to a long-standing problem. Many conveyors operating in the hostile environment of a mine suffer from the premature failure of bearings on the head, tail, drive and tensioning pulley. There are numerous reasons why overcoming this issue has proved challenging over the years, but NSK has come up with a solution that improves service life by up to 20 times without comprising any other requirements.

NSK’s Life-Lube^® bearing units are proving increasingly popular in the food and beverage industry, and with good reason. These advanced bearings combine the corrosion-resistant properties of Silver-Lube^® housings with the excellent sealing and lubricating properties of Molded-Oil inserts. Life-Lube^® units are specifically for use in sectors where contact with water and process fluids is unavoidable, and where excellent chemical resistance and long lubrication life are primary requirements. By taking advantage of the benefits available, food and beverage plants can tap into considerable savings from reduced downtime and maintenance costs.

Unforeseen bearing failures in production-critical machines and equipment can prove extremely costly in replacement parts, labour and downtime, all of which have a negative impact on bottom-line profitability. This problem becomes worse in contaminated environments, such as those prevalent in steel manufacturing, which is why increasing numbers of steel plants are turning to the advantages offered by NSK’s long-life Super-TF spherical roller bearings. Manufactured from a specially developed, proprietary material, these bearings are able to increase service life and uptime significantly.

NSK Self-Lube^® bearing units with triple lip seal and end cap protectors provide an extended service life in harsh operating conditions, such as those prevalent within the quarrying, mining and construction sectors. This proven performance is vital in these industries, where contaminants can easily penetrate poorly specified bearings, bringing machinery and equipment to a halt.

NSK TL series spherical roller bearings are active across the world in a host of papermaking machinery applications. Set against conventional spherical roller bearings with standard heat treatment, this advanced product is proving increasingly popular due to a number of distinct benefits that include enhanced inner ring strength, longer service life and dimensional stability at high operating temperatures.

The operator of a car wash line in Germany repeatedly had to replace bearings in the rotary unions of the system’s wash heads, leading to over €12,000 per annum for spare parts alone. However, maintenance costs were reduced to zero after replacing the bearings with NSK Molded-Oil deep groove ball bearings featuring DDU seals.

Bearings that operate in conditions with a high degree of contamination must offer many attributes. A highly efficient sealing arrangement is priority number one. However, these bearings must also be cost-effective and provide easy, quick and convenient fitting and removal, including the capability to counter any misalignment during assembly. To help meet all of these demands, an increasing number of OEMs and manufacturing plants are finding the optimum solution in NSK’s Self-Lube^® bearing units with triple lip seal.

A new high-speed series of miniature large-lead ball screws from NSK Linear Motion Control offers a number of important benefits to users, including reduced product takt time, the potential to downsize equipment, and reduced power consumption. Among the applications set to benefit are semiconductor chip mounters and parts aligning equipment.

NSK produces billions of bearings a year for a myriad of different applications and industries. Amid this vast repertoire is the company’s range of high-quality spherical roller bearings, which is steadily growing in prominence among heavy industries such as quarrying and mining, steel and metals, and papermaking. Made in Japan, NSK’s spherical roller bearing solutions are adept at resisting seizure and wear in demanding operating conditions that include constant vibration, heat and shock loads.