RBC Bearings Profile
RBC Bearings Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an international manufacturer and marketer of highly engineered precision bearings, components and essential systems for the industrial, defense and aerospace industries. The company manufactures products in all major categories, it focuses primarily on the higher end of the bearing, gearing and engineered component markets.
The company’s precision solutions are integral to the manufacture and operation of most machines and mechanical systems, to reduce wear to moving parts, facilitate proper power transmission, reduce damage and energy loss caused by friction, and control pressure and flow.
Customers and Markets
The company serves a broad range of end markets where it can add value with its specialty precision bearings, essential systems and engineered components. The company classifies its customers into two principal categories: industrial and aerospace/defense. These principal end markets utilize a large number of both commercial and specialized bearings, gearings and engineered components. Although the company provides a relatively small percentage of total bearings, gearings and engineered components supplied to each of its principal markets, the company has leading market positions in many of the specialized product markets in which it primarily competes.
Industrial Market
The company manufactures bearings, gearing and engineered components for a wide range of diversified industrial markets, including construction and mining, oil and natural resource extraction, heavy truck, aggregates, rail and train, food and beverage, packaging and canning, material handling semiconductor machinery, wind, and the general industrial markets. The company’s products target market applications in which its engineering and manufacturing capabilities provide it with a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The company’s largest industrial customers include Caterpillar, Komatsu and Kurt Manufacturing and various aftermarket distributors including Motion Industries, Applied Industrial, McMaster-Carr, BDI, Kaman and Purvis Industries. The diversification of the company’s sales among the various segments of the industrial markets and channels reduces its exposure to downturns in any individual segment.
Aerospace/Defense Market
The company supplies bearings and engineered components for use in commercial, private and military aircraft and aircraft engines, guided weaponry, space and satellites and vision and optical systems, and military marine and ground applications.
The company supplies precision products for many of the commercial aircraft operating worldwide and are the primary bearing supplier for many of the aircraft OEMs’ product lines. Commercial aerospace customers generally require precision products, often of special materials, made to unique designs and specifications. Many of the company’s aerospace bearings and engineered component products are designed and certified during the original development of the aircraft being served, which often makes it the primary bearing supplier for the life of that aircraft.
The company manufactures bearings and engineered components used by the U.S. Department of Defense (the DOD) and certain foreign governments for use in fighter jets, troop transports, naval vessels, helicopters, gas turbine engines, armored vehicles, guided weaponry, spaceflight and satellites. The company manufactures an extensive line of standard products that conform to many domestic military application requirements, as well as customized products designed for unique applications. The company’s bearings and engineered components are manufactured to conform to the U.S. military specifications and are typically custom-designed during the original product design phase, which often makes it the sole or primary supplier for the life of that product. Product approval for use on military equipment is often a lengthy process ranging from six months to six years.
The company’s largest aerospace and defense customers include the U.S. Department of Defense, Boeing, Airbus, Newport News Shipbuilding, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and various aftermarket distributors including National Precision Bearing, Jamaica Bearings, Wencor, and Wesco Aircraft. The company’s strong relationships with OEMs help drive its aftermarket sales since a portion of OEM sales are ultimately intended for use as replacement parts. The company’s two reportable business segments are aligned with the end-markets for its products.
Products
Bearings, gearing and engineered components are employed to perform several functions including reduction of friction, transfer of motion, carriage of loads, and control of pressure and flows. The company designs, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of bearings, gearing and engineered components.
Plain Bearings: Plain bearings are primarily used to rectify inevitable misalignments in various mechanical components, such as aircraft controls, helicopter rotors, or heavy mining and construction equipment. Such misalignments are either due to machining inaccuracies or result when components change position relative to each other. Plain bearings are produced with either self-lubricating or metal-to-metal designs and consist of several sub-classes, including rod end bearings, spherical plain bearings and journal bearings.
Roller Bearings: Roller bearings are anti-friction products that utilize cylindrical rolling elements. The company produces three main designs: tapered roller bearings, needle roller bearings and needle bearing track rollers, and cam followers. The company offers several needle roller bearing designs that are used in both industrial applications and certain the U.S. military aircraft platforms where there are high loads and the design is constrained by space considerations. A significant portion of the company’s sales of needle roller bearings is to the aftermarket rather than to OEMs. Needle bearing track rollers and cam followers have wide and diversified use in the industrial market and are often prescribed as a primary component in articulated aircraft wings.
Ball Bearings: Ball bearings are devices that utilize high precision ball elements to reduce friction in high-speed applications. The company specializes in four main types of ball bearings: high precision aerospace, airframe control, thin section, and industrial ball bearings. High precision aerospace bearings are primarily sold to customers in the defense industry that require more technically sophisticated bearing products providing a high degree of fault tolerance given the criticality of the applications in which they are used. Airframe control ball bearings are precision ball bearings that are plated to resist corrosion and are qualified under a military specification. Thin section ball bearings are specialized bearings that use extremely thin cross sections and give specialized machinery manufacturers many advantages. The company produces a general line of industrial ball bearings sold primarily to the aftermarket.
Mounted Bearings: Mounted bearings are fully assembled bearings with a wide range of shaft attachment methods, rolling elements, housing materials and configurations offering a variety of sealing solutions. Mounted bearing products include mounted ball bearings, mounted roller bearings and mounted plain bearings, and are used in light to heavy loads, and in clean, corrosive or harsh environments. Mounted roller bearings are pre-machined to allow field installation of the Dodge bearing sensor, adding remote monitoring capability in difficult to access applications and unsafe environments. Applications include unit and bulk material handling, industrial air handling, large rotor fans, food processing, roll-out tables, and forest pulp and paper processing equipment.
Enclosed Gearing: The company provides a broad range of enclosed gearing product lines including Quantis Gearmotor (helical style gearing with modular configurations and a variety of mounting methods), Torque Arm (shaft-mount gearing with helical style gearing and v-belt input for first stage reduction), Tigear (single reduction, right angle gear reducers with worm style gearing), MagnaGear & Maxum (parallel reducers with helical and planetary style gearing) and Controlled Start Transmission (planetary style gearing with hydraulic clutch package used for soft starting large conveyors). Applications include unit and bulk handling, food processing, roll-out tables, and forest pulp and paper processing equipment.
Motion Control Components: Power transmission components are of three types: mechanical drive components (offering V belt sheaves, synchronous sprockets, bushings and belts) used to change rotational speed between two pieces of equipment; couplings used to transmit torque between two rotating pieces of equipment, such as a motor and a gearbox; and conveyor components, which transfer torque from the mechanical drive equipment to the conveyor belt in bulk material handling applications. Applications include unit and bulk material handling, industrial air handling, large rotor fans, food processing, roll-out tables, and forest pulp and paper processing equipment.
Engineered Components: Engineered components include highly engineered hydraulics and valves, fasteners, precision mechanical components and machine tool collets. Engineered hydraulics and valves are used in aircraft and submarine applications and aerospace and defense aftermarket services. Precision mechanical components are used in all general industrial applications where some form of movement is required. Machine tool collets are cone-shaped metal sleeves used for holding circular or rod-like pieces in a lathe or other machine that provide effective part holding and accurate part location during machining operations.
Product Design and Development
The company produces specialized bearings and engineered components that are often tailored to the specifications of a customer or application. The company’s sales professionals are highly experienced engineers who collaborate with its customers to develop bearing and engineered component solutions. The product development cycle can follow many paths, which are dependent on the end market or sales channel. The process normally takes between three and six years from concept to sale depending upon the application and the market. A typical process for a major OEM project begins when the company’s design engineers meet with the customer at the machine design conceptualization stage and work with them through the conclusion of the product development.
Often, at the early stage, a bearing or engineered component design is produced that addresses the expected demands of the application, including load, stress, heat, thermal gradients, vibration, lubricant supply, pressure and flows, and corrosion resistance, with one or two of these environmental constraints being predominant in the design consideration.
Once a bearing or engineered component is designed, a mathematical simulation is created to replicate the expected application environment and thereby allow optimization with respect to these design variables. Upon conclusion of the design and simulation phase, samples are produced and laboratory testing commences at one of the company’s test laboratories. The purpose of this testing phase is not only to verify the design and the simulation model but also to allow further design improvement where needed. The last phase is field testing by the customer, after which the product is ready for sale.
For many of the company’s Aerospace/Defense products, the culmination of this lengthy process is the receipt of a product approval or certification, generally obtained from either the OEM, the DOD or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which allows it to supply the product to the OEM customer and to the aftermarket.
Sales, Marketing and Distribution
The company’s marketing strategy is aimed at increasing sales within its two primary markets, targeting specific applications in which it can exploit its competitive strengths.
The company has developed its sales force through the hiring of sales personnel with prior industry experience, complemented by an in-house training program. The company’s direct sales force is located to service North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America and is responsible for selling all of its products. This selling model leverages the company’s relationship with key customers and provides opportunities to market multiple product lines to both established and potential customers. The company also sells its products through a well-established, global network of industrial and aerospace distributors. This channel primarily provides the company’s products to smaller OEM customers, aftermarket customers and the end users of bearings and engineered components that require local inventory and service. The company intends to continue to focus on building distributor sales volume.
The company has a joint venture in North America focused on joint logistics and e-business services. This joint venture, CoLinx, LLC (CoLinx), includes five equity members: Timken, SKF Group, Schaeffler Group, RBC Bearings Incorporated and Gates Industrial Corp. The e-business service focuses on information and business services for authorized distributors in the Industrial segment.
The company also utilizes the RBC e-shop e-commerce platform to sell precision products and high quality mechanical components to customers. The sale of the company’s products is supported by a well-trained and experienced customer service organization, which provides customers with instant access to key information regarding their purchases. The company also provides customers with updated information through its website, and it has developed on-line integration with specific customers, enabling more efficient ordering and timely order fulfillment for those customers.
The company stores product inventory in warehouses located in the Midwest, Southwest and on the East and West coasts of the U.S., as well as in Australia, Canada, France, India, Mexico, the People’s Republic of China and Switzerland. The inventory is located in these locations based on analysis of customer demand to provide superior service and product availability.
Competition
The company’s principal competitors include SKF, New Hampshire Ball Bearings, Regal Rexnord, Precision Castparts and Timken.
Intellectual Property
The company owns the U.S. and foreign patents and trademark registrations and the U.S. copyright registrations and have the U.S. trademark and patent applications pending.
Regulation
The company has a substantial number of product approvals in the form of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) approvals or Parts Manufacturer Approvals, or PMAs, from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The company also has a number of active Parts Manufacturer Approvals (PMA) applications in process.
History
RBC Bearings Incorporated, a Delaware corporation, was founded in 1919. The company was incorporated in 1992.
