Timken Software Lets Industrial Supplier Get Its Bearings

The Timken Company (NYSE: TKR) today announced that Lufkin Industries, a leading supplier of oilfield pumping units, industrial gears, foundry castings and truck trailers, has achieved improvements in engineering design time with Timken's bearing selection software. Lufkin's Power Transmission Division uses the Timken(R) Tapered Roller Bearing Selection Guide to access engineering data and calculations, create model bearing applications and generate automated bearing selection alternatives that match to the size and performance requirements of its customers' applications. "Some applications are so demanding and specific, that we need to know if a bearing is available to match a request before we can even quote it," said Chris Peterson, manager of applications engineering for Lufkin's Power Transmission Division. "Before this software was implemented here, we would go back and forth a number of times with manufacturers to find the best bearing for the job. The value of the software is that we now have the information we need at our fingertips. We can quickly review a large number of Timken(R) bearings to find ones that work so we can get results and answers to our customers." Without having to draw bearing designs from scratch, the software enables companies like Lufkin to review built-in examples, create new designs and, over time, build a library of previous work that can easily be modified for new projects. Users can save projects in electronic, print or report form for easy reference. "Our primary mission in developing this software was to create an easy-to- use, innovative tool that helps improve our customers' performance," said Svens C. Milenbachs, Timken's application analysis software manager. "The end goal is to extend technology collaboration with our customers in a way that increases their ability to solve complex engineering problems quickly and effectively." The Timken Tapered Roller Bearing Selection Guide is a comprehensive and sophisticated software program with a user interface that makes navigation simple, allowing customers to get fast, accurate results. "The old methods certainly worked, but our team at Lufkin could spend hours going through the process," said Peterson. "This software not only saves us costs in time, but it helps us find bearings for extreme applications that we may not have otherwise known were available. That kind of value means we can produce better designs for our customers, do it faster than ever before and win business because of it." The Tapered Roller Bearing Selection Guide is available in six languages and is available through local Timken sales representatives.