NBC Bearings is the brand of National Engineering Industries Limited (NEI), a part of the US$ 2.4 billion C K Birla Group, which manufactures a wide range of bearings for the automotive, industrial, aerospace and railways sector. The company had a gross turnover of Rs 1352 crores in 2013-14. NEI is capable of developing bearings from 6mm bore to 2000mm outer diameter, in over 2300 sizes. The company was founded by Mr B. M. Birla in 1946 in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Its products are exported to more than 30 countries across five continents. Product range includes ball bearings, taper roller bearings, cylindrical bearings, spherical roller bearings, needle roller bearings, railway axle boxes and other special products. NEI also serves the Indian aftermarket through a countrywide network of 550 authorised stockists and thousand of retailers.

History

National Bearings Company Limited (NBC) was founded in Jaipur by Shri B. M. Birla in a technical collaboration with Hoffman, UK in the year 1946. It began with the production of ball bearings from the year 1950. Following a political change in the princely state of Hyderabad, the company was renamed as National Engineering Industries Limited.

Facilities

The company has five manufacturing facilities located at

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...

, Newai and

Manesar Manesar is a town and municipal corporation, know new Gurugram City in the Gurugram district of the state of Haryana, India and a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi. It is an industrial hub. Its proximity to the burgeoning cit ...

and Savli (Vadodara). Apart from the bearing production, the company also produces Next- Gen products. The employee strength is 2800 across five plants.12 Rail Business, Volume 4, Issue 19-May 2013

Capacity

NBC makes 200 million bearings annually across its five plants. The NBC brand commands a market share of 24% in the domestic market. Approximately 70% of NEI's sales come from original equipment manufacturers and 30% from the replacement market. The turnover approximates 60% from the auto sector (OEM and aftermarket), 30% for railway products and 10% from the low volume industrial applications.

Technology

NEI uses a

heat treatment Heat treating (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are also ...

machine (furnace) from Chugairo,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The

grinding Grind is the cross-sectional shape of a blade. Grind, grinds, or grinding may also refer to: Grinding action * Grinding (abrasive cutting), a method of crafting * Grinding (dance), suggestive club dancing * Grinding (video gaming), repetitive and ...

technology is sourced from Izumi of

, Nova of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, LMT of

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and FMT of

. NEI operates 22 grinding lines out of which 17 are used for Deep Groove

Ball Bearing A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races. The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this ...

(DGBB) and five are used for Double Row Angular Contact (DRAC) Bearings. NEI maintains technical collaborations with NTN (Japan) and Amsted Rail (Brenco, USA).

Research and development

The company has developed a low torque bearing that can reduce friction up to 20%, which results in fuel efficiency. The company spends 1% of its turnover on R & D activities, with an eye on increasing it to 2% in the coming years. The company holds a number of patents born from its research activities.

References