Constant improvement of performance and lifetime of NTE bearings is based on the technological progress in three main areas:
- Design
- Materials
- Production
Bearings NTE are produced in full compliance with the international standards ISO.
NTE Group uses advanced manufacturing technologies at all production stages starting with forging and turning operations, heat treatment, grinding and ending with washing and automated assembling in order to produce bearings of the highest quality for our customers.
Our production line supervisors and engineers are highly qualified and aimed for continuous implementing of improved production processes for bearing manufacturing.
Bearing manufacturing steps
The entire bearing manufacturing process layout comprises:
- Control of incoming material
Before raw material is accepted in the production line, samples are checked in laboratory by chemical analyses, hardening tests, macro and microstructure evaluations etc. Moreover, every single component is subject to an acceptance control for its conformance to the specifications and drawings stated by NTE.
- Machining
There are two main types of machining process:
- Removal of material by turning rings on spindle turning machine.
- Deformation of material by forging and hot or cold rolling.
- Heat Treatment
Heat Treatment increases material hardness. At each of the three steps, different processes are available, depending on the product.
1. Heating 850 °C - to alter the structure of the material (austenitizing).
2. Quenching 40 °C - rapid cooling to fix the structure of the material and thus increase hardness.
3. Tempering 170 °C – "reheating" to reduce the effects of thermal shock (quenching) inside the structure and stabilize the material.
- Grinding
Grinding is used to give the ring blanks their "final" shape and improve surface condition (roughness).
Various machines are used to perform several operations:
- end surface grinding
- outer ring outer diameter grinding
- inner ring inner diameter grinding
- inner ring outer diameter grinding (raceway)
- outer ring inner diameter grinding (raceway)
- superfinishing operations improve the condition of raceway surfaces.
- Assembly – end of process layout
It involves assembly of various items as well as performing additional functions (greasing, marking, etc.)
During each of these steps, the bearing manufacturing process layout is carried out in full compliance with total quality management (self-inspection, SPC and TPM).
