Manufacturing large-capacity, heavy-duty lathes, primarily for North America and Japan, repeatable precision, reliability and delivery are critical.

 

Faced with an unacceptable lead time of up to two years from its existing bearing supplier, company chairman, Richard Chen, took the obvious decision and looked for an alternative supplier.

 

Initially, he entered into negotiations with Gamet Bearings because it could supply large super-high-precision taper roller bearings (up to 506mm ID) in a lead time of only weeks.

 

The bearings were required for the robust and rigid Kingston HK and HG range of hollow- spindle oil country lathes.

 

Weighing up to 9,150kg, the lathes have spindle bores of 305-370mm.

 

The large-bore spindle bearings needed a capability to handle a 40,000lb thrust load and 60,000lb radial load.

 

Prompt delivery to King Kong was vital, in order that the company could fill its own order commitments.

 

Gamet was able to guarantee short lead times and on-schedule delivery.

 

In addition to ensuring much more acceptable lead times for the bearings, Gamet was able to improve on bearing performance significantly by developing four spindle bearings for these HK and HG lathe models, giving better rotational accuracy and superior repeatability, while ensuring interchangeability with existing Timken/NSK bearings.

 

Manufactured from high-quality bearing steels, the Gamet tapered roller bearings provide the very high stiffness and high load capacity needed by these heavy-duty machines.

 

From undertaking the design to delivery was less than nine months.

 

All Gamet bearings are manufactured to a rotational accuracy as low as 0.5 micrometres (QK Grade), better than ABEC 9/Timken 00.

 

Its range of large-diameter bearings, particularly appropriate to the oil industry but also crucial for the grinding, turning, printing and steel industries and special-purpose machinery, are currently manufactured up to 506mm ID, in plain- and flanged-cup versions with high radial and axial load capabilities and radial run-out accuracy better than 10 micrometres.