Schaeffler UK Offered Full Service for Customers

More than a supplier of bearings, Schaeffler UK is now offering customers a full design and manufacturing service from its Llanelli plant, including repair and refurbishment of most types of bearing. There the factory toolroom and engineering staff have already carried out a wide range of projects for customers, including the design and manufacture of non-standard housings and adaptor sleeves for the paper industry; the manufacture of back-up rolls for the steel industry; and 3D machined components. In addition, the company has trained staff in the repair and refurbishment of most types of specialised bearing applications. Brian Fox, Engineering Manager at Schaeffler UK commented: 'The toolroom here is now a profit centre in its own right.The toolroom was already producing low volume samples and one-off prototypes for other Schaeffler Group plants around the world, but we decided to look for business elsewhere, particularly local firms in the UK, So, rather than just machine and refurbish standard bearings, we're trying to move into a niche market of low volume, high precision machined components and sub-assemblies.We can even offer the design and engineering capability too'. One local company based in Wales, the Corus Packaging Plus Trostre Works, which manufactures tin plate for the packaging industry, approached Schaeffler Llanelli because it was experiencing bearing quality problems on its back-up leveller rolls. The bearings for the leveller rolls are critical to tinplate production, as they ensure that any surface irregularities in the tin plating (caused by the rolling process) are removed. As O'Loughlin explained: 'We did a lot of work with Schaeffler Llanelli, who helped us improve our inspection and maintenance procedures on the bearings.We also wanted to speak to someone local, so that we could actually show them and explain the problems we were having first hand.The bearings are now lasting longer and the refurbished bearings are more cost effective for us in the long term'. Schaeffler Llanelli now takes all the special purpose cylindrical, deep groove needle roller bearings from Corus Trostre, to check whether they can be refurbished.