A Quick Look on Fastener and Bearing Industries

INDUSTRIAL FASTNERS are generally classified as standards, specials, or proprietary designs, in members fundamentally of metal bolts, nuts, screws, rivets, washers, formed and threaded wire goods and special industrial fasteners. Standard fasteners are mass-produced, and typically cold-headed threaded parts.

China is the fastest-growing supplying nation in this field thanks to the advantages of cheaper labors and raw materials, along with land acquisition. Special fasteners are usually based on standard designs, yet sometimes incorporate non-standard tolerances, pitch and diameter combinations, drives, lengths, etc. or made in assigned requirements on alloys or separate secondary operations including drilling and punching.

Taiwan has shifted from mass production mode to customized special fastener supplier. Proprietary design fasteners are made to the patented designs, licensed to several manufacturers, for threads, drive types, head types, locking devices, points and more.

fasteners are big business. For instance, every year, U.S., the biggest buyer, consumes over 200 billion fasteners. And automobile industry alone uses 26 billion pieces in 2005. The booms of fasteners industry in the Asian Pacific Rim, mainly Taiwan, Japan and China enable these countries to expand exporting territories to U.S., Mexico, Canada, Europe, and South America. In 2004, the consumption of fasteners in U.S. reached $9,878 billion. Total imported value of $3,065 billion worth of fasteners was primarily from Taiwan (US$1,715 billion), Japan (US$501 billion), and from China (US$421 billion). Oncoming global consolidation and acquisitions make large companies even bigger. This enables them to devote to the development of highly engineered, technologically advanced fasteners and offering value-added customer services such as “just in time” (JIT) delivery and customer-designed or specialized design/engineering services.

BEARINGS are basically used to ease friction between moving parts or to carry load in certain industries such as those that handle materials. They can be broadly categorized into two segments, bimetals and anti-friction bearings. There are four main types of bearings, including ball bearings, cylindrical roller bearings, taper roller bearings and needle roller bearings.

Bearings are generally regarded as a barometer of the country's technical advancement since they function as the backbone of the national industrial future.

Bearings are largely used in automobile industry, followed by general engineering, electrical industries, heavy industry and railways industry. The materials used to manufacture bearings vary from conventional steel to ceramics, brass and plastics. The most common material used to produce bearing rings, balls and rollers is alloy steel conforming to specifications SAE 52100. Still, this standard material is also distinguished by if it can render prolonged life span and improved quality on purity and oxygen content.

In response to ever-changing market demands, industrial players focus on developing bearings with reinforced compactness, reduced weight and noise, greater speed capability, higher accuracy, longer life, and better performance such as on extremely low and high temperatures and vacuums. In addition, bearing suppliers are also ready to provide technical supports to customers from development to mass production in meet their specific needs throughout all stages.

Article from TTnet.net