ENGINEERING INSIGHT
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IBSCO stocks an array of bearings and adds lubricant as orders are filled. The firm services customers in the aerospace, manufacturing, medical, and other sectors with a variety of bearing materials and configurations.
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IBSCO can mix various lubricants to meet the requirements of specific bearing applications.
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Small as they sometimes are, bearings are among the workhorses of industry. But without the right design or the use of the correct lubricant, they can fail prematurely, causing equipment to malfunction or stop working altogether. “Getting bearings with the correct design and construction is vital to the quality of our products,” says Vernon Gulley, purchasing manager for Anspach (Palm Beach Gardens, FL, USA). The stakes are especially high in Anspach’s case, since it manufactures high-speed power instruments used for surgical applications in medical specialties such as neurology, neurotology, otology, and orthopaedics.
To be sure that a bearing works as it is intended requires a close collaboration with a knowledgeable supplier, Gulley says. For that reason, Anspach has chosen to partner with Intercontinental Bearing Supply Co. (IBSCO; Houston, TX, USA)—a company with almost three decades of experience supplying bearings and specialized lubricants to a variety of industries. The firm keeps thousands of bearings in stock, adding lubricant as it fills orders.
Keeping Stock of Requirements
According to IBSCO president Jack O’Donnell, the company’s engineers work closely with companies like Anspach to find the right bearings and appropriate lube for specific applications. “For example, Anspach’s hand tools operate at a high speed and therefore have certain bearing and lube requirements,” he says. Because Anspach’s tools must be sterilized by autoclaving after each procedure, a lubricant that can withstand extreme heat as well as the hand tools’ high-speed operation must be used, O’Donnell adds.
The firm can also analyze bearing failures to determine where adjustments to lubricants can solve the problem. IBSCO, for instance, can mix lubricants to meet specific needs. Traceability is another important element in determining the cause of a malfunctioning bearing. By tracing a failing bearing back to a stock number, necessary precautions can be taken in the future. “Traceability is important to everything we do, which applies to bearings, lubricants, and packaging,” says Anspach’s Gulley. “We try to have traceability all the way back to the raw material, if possible, which helps us avoid repeated problems and also be more accountable.”
The Value of Partnership
To maintain its credentials in custom lubrication of bearings, IBSCO shares information on the subject with New Hampshire Ball Bearings Inc. (NHBB; Peterborough, NH, USA). An authorized relubrication center for that company, IBSCO is also one of NHBB’s largest distributors, according to O’Donnell. “We’ve been working with NHBB for more than 25 years and have a very symbiotic relationship—trading information back and forth,” he says. “That relationship has really helped us keep ahead of the technology curve.”
The partnership between IBSCO and NHBB has proved beneficial for Anspach, as well. When in use, surgical tools sometimes can fail when blood, bone, or tissue binds up in their bearings. To prevent that problem, O’Donnell’s engineers worked with Anspach and NHBB to incorporate a larger external seal into the tool, thereby maximizing bearing protection and, consequently, the service life of the surgical tool.
An additional benefit of being a distributor for NHBB is the ability to cut lead time for IBSCO customers. Whereas an order to NHBB’s factory would take up to 36 weeks lead time, the distributor can cut that time by 60% or more if it stocks the bearings needed by the user.
IBSCO is also partnering with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is also headquartered in Houston, TX. At present, O’Donnell says the firm is working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located in Pasadena, CA, USA, to provide the bearings for the next Mars Rover camera. To handle demanding applications such as these, IBSCO has invested in a Class 100 cleanroom facility, which is certified annually to ISO 14644-1 and ISO 14644-2.
