The China Issue

While Paul DeBorde, co-owner of Bearing Distributors Inc. in Columbia, S.C., understands that steel costs drive much of the pricing, he wonders why prices continue to increase when much of the manufacturing is being done overseas. "It seems as though the manufacturers should be passing along some of these savings to the distributors," he explains. "They manufacture their products in China, then charge us the same price they did when they made them here."

Indeed, DeBorde points out that he purchases some products directly from China and reports that he can get these for 50% to 60% less than what he pays for the U.S. ones.

That raises the question of the impact of China both as a customer and as a supplier.

"Some of the large bearing manufacturers are seeing increased business in the Far East, especially China," says Rick Opatik, president of the American Bearings Manufacturers Assn. "On the other hand, China and India are becoming more competitive [and] are able to export their products around the world much more easily than they have in the past."

At this point, that is more the case on the lower end of the bearing market, rather than the higher-end, higher-quality bearings. "Most of the bearings coming into the U.S. from the Far East tend to be commodity bearings, rather than specialty bearings," he explains.

What about quality? "We occasionally send them to labs that run quality tests on them, and some of the Chinese ones are actually better quality than some that we purchase in the U.S.," re-ports DeBorde. A few of his customers still insist they don't want any Chinese products, but he has found that they are changing their minds. "I think it's similar to the mindset in the late 1970s, when no one wanted to buy anything from Japan," he recalls. "It didn't take long for U.S. companies to realize that Japanese quality had really improved, and I think the same thing is now happening with products from China."

New products, services

Despite being an old industry, the bearing industry continues to make technological advances in new products, such as advances taking place in sensors, increased reliability, and longer product life.

"Some bearings now have remote sensors, which can wirelessly transmit speed, temperature, vibration, and other indicators," states Bill Shepard, marketing and e-business manager for BDI in Cleveland.

And Timken, for example, offers a broad range of condition monitoring products. One of these is called StatusCheck, a remote condition monitoring device that transmits vibration and temperature information via radio frequency signals. It sends signals when bearing conditions fall outside of parameters that the customer sets. "It is designed especially for industry application where it is impractical or dangerous to send employees in to collect this information," explains Sarah Chuba, global market manager—heavy industries, for Timken.

Rockwell Automation of Greenville, S.C., is involved in the mounted bearing system business (housing, bearing insert, sealing, and locking device). In recent years, it has introduced a number of new thin-walled, easy-on/easy-off adapters for roller bearing systems. Less than two years ago, it introduced the first-ever thin-walled, easy-on/easy-off adapter for ball bearing systems, called Grip Tight. "This will take over the world at some point in time," predicts Fred Bachert, general product manager of bearings, Rockwell Automation. "Once customers begin using it, they won't use anything else. Our salespeople never have a problem selling it."

Timken offers tools such as shock pulse monitoring tools, handheld devices, and continuous monitoring devices.

Manufacturers are also researching new materials, lubricants, and coatings for bearings. For example, Timken is now providing different types of greases for specific applications and industries. (Using the wrong type of grease in a bearing will reduce its life.) "We used to recommend the best greases for customers to use," reports Brian Berg, global market manager—off highway, for Timken. "Now we offer our own greases designed to handle the wide variety of bearing applications, such as high- load, high-speed, high-contamination, and food-grade applications."

As in a lot of industries, specialized and technical service from suppliers is becoming more important "As OEMs have cut back on their engineering teams, it has led to a need for suppliers to bring more technical innovation to their customers," states Timken's Berg.

Some distributors are also offering value-added services. "We work with customers to help them standardize their products, which allows them to reduce inventory levels," states BDI's Shepard.