See Also : Indian Bearing Industry

Bearings are "the Essential items" required to reduce or eliminate the friction between moving parts. Depending on the application there are different principles on which these bearings are designed and run. Bearing can be used to provide sliding contact between mating parts or rolling contact between the mating parts. Hence broadly the bearing can be classified into two main types: Plain Bearings: Used to minimize "friction" by providing sliding contact between mating parts. Rolling Contact Bearings: Used to minimize "friction" by providing rolling contact between mating parts.

  Plain Bearings:
Plain bearings operate on the principle of Boundary layer lubrication. The load carrying capacity of plain bearings depends on the type of film which is formed between the mating surfaces.

  Rolling Contact Bearings:
Rolling Contact substitute a rolling element, ball or roller, for a hydrodynamic or hydrostatic fluid film to carry an impressed load without wear and with reduced friction. Because of their greatly reduced starting friction they have acquired the common designation of Anti-friction bearings. Normally made with hardened rolling elements and races, and usually utilizing a separator to space the rolling elements and reduce friction, many variations are in use throughout the mechanical and electrical industry.

Types of Rolling contact bearings:
The general types are usually determined by the shape of the rolling element, but many variations have been developed which apply conventional elements in unique ways. Thus special bearings can be procured with races adapted to specific applications.
Types of Rolling contact bearings:
    Ball Bearings
    Taper Roller Bearings
    Cylindrical Roller Bearings, Spherical Roller Bearings
    Needle Roller Bearings.

Characteristics of Rolling Contact Bearings:
The static and kinematic torques of rolling element bearings are generally small and in many applications are not significant. As compared to sleeve bearings, ball and roller bearings offer Low starting friction, less axial space, Easy replacement. For shock loads and heavy loads of short duration roller bearings are usually preferred.

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Indian Bearing Industry:

Bearings in India started with the setting up of a manufacturing unit in Jaipur by the Birla Group in 1955. Since then it has grown into an important Industry. Today it is an important part of the Automobile and Engineering sectors. Besides focusing on the Domestic consumers, Indian Bearing industry has started to compete in the Global Market.

Bearing OEMs in India mainly caters to:
Automobile
General Engineering & Heavy Industries
Electrical equipments.

Though the size of Indian Automobile Industry (except of two wheeler segment) is very small as compared to Global size, it is the largest User industry for Indian Bearing Industry. Replacement market is also an important End user for the Bearings. Growth of Automobile population in India also fuels to growth of Replacement market and demand from vehicle maintenance.

Engineering segment mainly comprises of capital goods and heavy engineering industry. The demand growth from OE segment here depends on industrial and infrastructural related activities. Other users includes mainly railways (using bearings for locomotives, wagons and coaches etc.).

Indian Bearing Industry constitutes some of the world-class manufacturers like FAG, SKF, TIMKEN, NBC and Tata Bearings. It also has a host of small organized and unorganized players catering to the replacement market. Imports (legal as well as illegal) too is becoming an important supplier to the Indian bearing consumers.

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Outlook and Expectation:

The economic slowdown besides increasing domestic and global competition has had its effect on Indian industry. While demand is low, customers are increasingly looking at both the price and performance. To counter this increasing expectation all the manufacturers are working to give their best in terms of price and quality. While this is true for all products it is very important for Bearing manufacturers.

Today bearing manufacturers are concerned about:
Cost per part
Product Quality - Geometry and Finish
Productivity and Cycle time.
Yield Loss

Manufacturers are constantly looking at new and innovative ways to modify their process, use best economic viable tools for their production and achieve best cycle time to reduce their cost per parts & still have the best quality bearing produced. Manufacturers of Bearings are thus looking at Total Solution to their needs.

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Our Answer to Your expectation:
We as Grindwell Norton ltd, a part of Saint-Gobain group of Companies, believe in working closely with our customers. We understand that Bearing industry is highly service oriented and quality conscious in nature. Increasing competition and reduced demand has forced this industry to be more and more dynamic to schedules and requirements. While our strong team of Product Engineers work along with our customers, try to understand their need and work out best possible solutions, our Sales Engineers are constantly looking at new innovative ways and techniques to take care of the dynamic schedules on abrasive requirements. Our close coordination within factory to customer schedules and highly developed Customer service levels supports us to service our customers much more effectively.

All this strengthens our motto of being "A Solution provider" to the industry rather than just be another supplier of Abrasives.

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The Systems Approach to Grinding Process: **

Pioneered by Norton, this concept of "System's Approach to Grinding Process" is a major breakthrough to the Bearing industry. System's Approach is the simultaneous consideration of -- Scientific Fundamentals, Engineering principles and Management of Cost effectiveness, which helps us to focus, minimize and control the right variable thru improve overall efficiency and productivity.

The System Approach identifies the key relationships or governing principles. Attach them strategically using all aspects of the system: the machine tool, work material, abrasive product and operational factors.

The Result: Significant improvement in grinding results and their commercial value (system output).

**Your local Grindwell Norton Sales Engineer can provide valuable help with creating conducting and evaluating the results of your test with no obligation on your part. Please contact our local sales office or mail to:

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Field Instrumentation System:Grindwell Norton ltd. In close coordination with its principle R & D base at Higgins Grinding Technology Center, USA, has developed tools to collect and analyze the macroscopic variables in grinding process. These macroscopic variables like power drawn during grinding, Slide Velocity, Part size change, Cycle time are measured and monitored using this tool which then helps to understand the microscopic interaction.

These interactions can then be optimized to achieve desired results at optimum cost. This tool is portable and very user friendly and can be hooked on to machine power source without disturbing any setting on the machine.

Benefits:

Predictive understanding of grinding process.
Machine capability (stiffness estimation) studies help in standardizing the machine   performance to the designed efficiencies.
Macroscopic monitoring (power, feed etc) is used to standardize the process   parameters for designed efficiencies.
Machine cost reduction due to better utilization of machine.
Machine tool cost optimization (minimum cost)
Reduced Labour costs due to enhanced productivity.
Improved and assured quality output thereby reduced rework, inspection and   rejection costs.

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Technology Options:

Grindwell Norton being a part of the Saint-Gobain Group, the No 1 worldwide on Industrial Abrasives has the access to the best of technology available within the group. Winter Germany , Universal UK, Effesis Germany, Micromold Italy etc are few of the major abrasive suppliers worldwide who are now a part of Saint-Gobain Group. All this means that we have the latest development available to offer to our customers in India. If required we can even get the necessary technology transfer and make similar products at our works in Mora. Last but not the least if required we can import Abrasive products from our affiliates worldwide and offer it to our customers.

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Customer Service:

With reducing demand and increasing uncertainty in market place it is becoming more and more difficult to predict the demand for consumables. While this often leads to criticalities, it also sometimes disturbs the production schedules due to non-availability of abrasives in time. Making Reliable delivery commitment and meeting schedules is very important to Bearing Industry.

Being in the Mumbai, Business Hub of the country, takes care of much of the logistics related issues. Moreover our Geographically centered location puts us at an added advantage to reach the farthest customer with minimum time.

But we have not stopped at this. We have worked out new techniques to ensure that capital intensive applications are not disrupted due to non-availability of abrasives. We have developed theconcept Abrasive Management program ** with few Bearing Manufacturers. We are already working on Concepts of Consignment Stock** with few other major bearing accounts. We are also working on possible ways and means to reduce the process lead times to ensure faster availability of material.

** for more details on Abrasive Management and Consignment Stock , please mail to paresh.Malhotra@saint-gobain.co.in

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Information:
Quick and reliable information is a vital aspect of SCM. In light of increasing need of flexibility, a rapid response to schedules and criticalities is very important. We realized this and have empowered our local branches at all locations across India to be connected to our central database server. Thus any information related to production status and likely delivery is available real time.

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