A manufacturer of special metric and imperial bearings, as well as standard bearings that are difficult to source, Huddersfield-based
HB Bearings makes a variety of bearing types, including precision radial, deep groove ball, cylindrical roller, angular contact, and duplex, plus many others — including super-precision tapered roller bearings under the Gamet Bearings brand, those for the motorsport sector, and low-volume bearings for high-end supercar manufacturers.
HB Bearing’s reputation has been earned through the high quality of its bearings and service; and in addition to the company’s first-class manufacturing capabilities, it implements a ‘rigorous quality control and testing regime’, one that saw HB Bearings replace its existing bearing run-out test rig with a bespoke system from Andover-based
Mitutoyo (UK) Ltd.
Darren Mawhinney, HB Bearings technical director, said: “While our special bearings are manufactured to customer specifications, our in-house design department can work closely with potential customers to develop unique designs; these might incorporate specialised features that reduce component costs and assembly times.”
He continued: “Having previously established an excellent relationship with the staff of the close-by Mitutoyo office in Elland, when we began the search for a new improved version of our bearing run-out test rig I contacted the branch with my ideas for the proposed new bearing run-out test rig. I was introduced to Simon Elliot, general manager at MGT (Mitutoyo Gauging Technology), who quickly understood our requirements and configured a system to meet them. We subsequently had a trouble-free installation and system commissioning.
“Now the system is up and running, we are delighted with its speed, ease of use, and accuracy. Simplicity is critical in the test application and the new rig can be operated with ‘just one click’; and when compared to our older rig, the new system includes a coarse scale that enables components to be quickly and simply aligned.
“Moreover, we can now export results directly onto CSV (comma-separated values) so they can be directly input into our reports, which is something our older rig could not do; it can also perform accurate quality control checks on our Gamet Bearings’ brand, which have a radial runout specification of 0.5µm.”