RBC Bearings Incorporated and its subsidiaries (RBC) operate as an international manufacturer and marketer of highly engineered precision bearings, components and essential systems for the aerospace, defense and industrial industries. The company manufactures products in all major categories, it focuses primarily on the higher end of the bearing, gearing and engineered component markets. With 54 facilities in 11 countries, of which 38 are manufacturing facilities, the company has been able to si...
RBC Bearings Incorporated and its subsidiaries (RBC) operate as an international manufacturer and marketer of highly engineered precision bearings, components and essential systems for the aerospace, defense and industrial industries. The company manufactures products in all major categories, it focuses primarily on the higher end of the bearing, gearing and engineered component markets. With 54 facilities in 11 countries, of which 38 are manufacturing facilities, the company has been able to significantly broaden its end markets, products, customer base and geographic reach.
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.
Industrial Market
The company manufactures bearings, gearing, and engineered components for a wide range of diversified industrial markets, including multi-industry manufacturing, construction, metals and mining, aggregate and cement, food and beverage, oil and natural resource extraction, forest products, warehousing and logistics, grain, transportation, packaging and canning, semiconductor equipment, power generation, waste and water management, and other 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 Halliburton and various aftermarket distributors, including Motion Industries, Applied Industrial, Baldwin Supply, BDI and Purvis Industries.
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, vision and optical systems, and military marine and ground applications.
The company supplies precision products for many of the commercial aircraft operating worldwide and is the primary bearing supplier for many of the aircraft OEMs’ product lines. Commercial aerospace customers generally require precision products, often constructed of special materials and 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 the company 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, helicopters, naval vessels, gas turbine engines, armored vehicles, transport vehicles, guided weaponry, and space and satellite applications. 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 the company 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, Blue Origin and SpaceX and various aftermarket distributors, including National Precision Bearing.
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, as well as cam followers. The company offers several needle roller bearing designs that are used in both industrial applications and certain 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. The company also provides actuation components to customers within its commercial aerospace and space markets.
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. A bearing or engineered component design must perform reliably for the period of time required by the customer's product objectives.
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. The company has a significant number of such approvals, which often gives it a competitive advantage, and in many of these instances, it is the only approved supplier of a given bearing or engineered component.
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 employs a technically proficient sales force and utilize marketing managers, product managers, customer service representatives and product application engineers in its selling efforts.
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 intends to continue to hire and develop expert sales professionals and strategically locate them to implement its expansion strategy. The company's direct sales force is located to service North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, 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 warehouse and transportation logistics and e-business services. The e-business service focuses on information and business services for authorized distributors in the Industrial segment.
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, England, 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, NORD and Timken.
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 was founded in 1919. The company was incorporated in 1992.