Capabilities


Capabilities

We offer a wide variety of dependable and helpful services including rapid prototyping and inventory fulfillment. Exceptional design and testing capabilities are also fundamental to our business. Every single one of the active parts we manufacture is different from the next and each is designed to meet a particular need. Over the years, we’ve made significant investment in our capabilities to ensure we’re constantly providing leading solutions and high-quality parts and products across a variety of markets.

Drawn Cup Needle Roller Bearings

Design & Engineering

We are constantly evolving and improving ourselves as a quality bearing manufacturer. Our company utilizes a variety of development tools including Romax bearing modeling and analysis in order to design new applications. Other tools include internally developed programs and Autodesk Inventor for bearing assembly design. Our experts will analyze your current bearing and give knowledgeable recommendations to improve life or reduce your overall cost. We can also take your precise design inputs and recommend a bearing based on our vast years of experience. You don’t need to worry about having to pick a bearing out of a catalog. Our team will design a bearing to fit your exact application.

CAD Design for Bearings

UB Capability for Bearing Analysis

  • Advanced Bearing Analysis: UB/Romax Technology
    • Use raw math data from the customer
    • Develop complete system models; Simple and Complex Models
    • Analysis based on Application Duty Cycle
  • Internally Developed Programs
    • Needle roller profile optimization
    • Fits and clearances
    • Planetary load and speed calculations; Lever analogy method SAE 810102
  • Autodesk Inventor
    • Bearing Assembly Design
    • 3D modeling
    • Translation into any customer-specified software
  • Planetary Inputs
    • Duty cycle
    • Lubrication and other parameters
  • Planetary Analysis
    • Carrier data
    • Interactive system geometries
  • Planetary outputs
    • Bearing performance – L10 and L1 fatigue life
    • Needle roller profile for gear tilt and roller skew
    • Maximum shear stress – orthogonal
    • Pinion shaft deflection, bending stress
    • Slopes across the needle roller and at carrier faces
    • Lubrication and film thickness parameters
    • Hertzian contact stress – magnitude and location 

Production Manufacturing

At our state-of-the-art facility, we can provide many expert services including high-speed straightening and cutting; cold forming; specialized mass tumbling and burnishing; centerless grindings with automatic size control; 100% machine final inspection as required, and special profiling equipment to generate needle rollers with logarithmic profiling. With this industry-leading equipment and advanced technologies, we make pins/shafts, rollers, needle roller, dowel pins, axles, pinion shafts and specialty rollers and shafts that are state of the art. Our engineering department reviews and approves all parts for production and closely monitors production as parts progress through our system. From cutting through heat treating, precision grinding, inspection, packaging and shipping, we use statistical process control methods to ensure our parts precisely meet your manufacturing specifications.

High Precision Centerless Grinding CNC Machine

Specialty Materials

Our experts are capable of processing many different varieties of materials to build our customers’ parts to perform better, last longer and function for a variety of end uses. This includes bearing grade JIS SUJ2 / SAE 52100 / DIN 100Cr6 (standard), stainless pins, bearing grade 1085, 440C stainless, 4118, and 1055. Other materials can be considered per request. Our standard raw material is high quality steel compliant to ASTM A295 with grade designations: SAE 52100, JIS SUJ2 and DIN 100Cr6. However, when your specs call for other steels, we can use SAE1085 modified, SAE 4118, and other carbon grade and alloy steels along with various grades of stainless steel. If you’re looking for a material that’s not mentioned here, please reach out to one of our experts today.

WIre used for Bearings

Heat Treating

Universal Bearings operates various heat-treat machines in-house. We proudly maintain the highest level of quality. The bulk of our products are “neutral hardened” in our heat treating process, but we can also provide induction hardening, carbonitriding, ferritic nitro-carburizing and nitriding processes. In any case, if special requirements are needed for surface treatment, we have reliable secondary sources for those special surface treatment pursuant to customer’s requirements. We work with trusted and knowledgeable industry partners to ensure all of our clients’ requirements are met. Find out more about our heat treatment options to see what these processes have to offer your bearings.

Heat Treating

Testing & Quality Control

As an industry leader, we have various testing machines to perform the level of durability for each bearing product. This will include but is not limited to: back-to-back test stand machines; planetary application testing machines; thrust bearing testing machines; radial bearing testing machines; and flexible radial or thrust load machines. These state-of-the-art machines allow us to do design validation tests on new applications as well as current production bearings. We also have an in-house metallurgical lab to validate both in-house and outside sources. Our quality standards provide our customers with peace of mind. We diligently maintain our IATF 16949, ISO 14001, and ISO 9001 certifications and are certified to General Motors Built in Quality Supply requirements.

Manufacturing Capabalities

Our Test Machines

  • Capable of Radial, Axial and Planetary Component test positions
    • Maximum load -> Radial/Axial = 22.5 kN (2295 kgf)
    • Maximum speeds -> Planetary = 13,500 rpm; Radial/Axial 5,500 to 8,000 rpm
    • Lubrication: as required, often using customer specified
    • Temperature: 170°C with inline heater
    • Oil Flow: as required – controlled flow or bath
    • Variables monitored (all data linked to controller)
      • Accelerometer (vibration monitoring)
      • Load (manual, adjustable sensing)
      • Temperature (set program, adjustable)
      • Speed/Cycles (manual, adjustable)
      • Lubrication Flow to bearings (manual, adjustable)
    • Variables monitored (all data linked to controller)

Precision Tolerance, Custom Bearing Components

Rely on Universal Bearings for superior quality at competitive prices. Request a quote or contact us today.