Woodex Celebrating Dual Anniversary

Woodex Bearing Inc. (USA) is celebrating 25 years under its current ownership, and 100 years as a bearing brand. http://www.woodexbearing.com Originally founded in 1904, the Neveroil Bearing Company (Wakefield, Massachusetts) focused entirely on oil-impregnated wood bearings for the booming New England textile industry (similarly, Torrington got its start as a needle manufacturer for the same market). Woodex, as a Neveroil brand, was launched in 1905. Neveroil transitioned away from wood bearings to foundry and powdered metal products in the 1930's, renamed itself The Wakefield Corporation. Wakefield sold off the Woodex brand and wood bearing manufacturing equipment, which in 1966 came to Robinhood Marine in Georgetown, Maine. The current owners acquired Woodex Bearing Company in 1980, relocating it to another site in Georgetown. Today, Woodex still manufactures oil-impregnated split wood bearings and has added a proprietary lineup of custom specialty MECO dry-running shaft seals. For many centuries, plain bearings made of wood were the only bearings used in most industrial applications, and were the only precision-engineered bearings and shafts widely available. They were used in everything from the earliest prehistoric carts and sailing ships, all the way through the industrial revolution and now into the 21st century. One of only two remaining manufacturers of wood bearings, Woodex employs approximately 25 people in its 17,000 square foot combined manufacturing and office location. Woodex bearings are split, shimless oil-impregnated maple plane bearings. They still have a wide array of originally-installed applications, as well as being produced for replacement. Applications include split screw conveyor hanger bearings, roll conveyors, water wheels, and hydroelectric turbines. Conveyor bearings are produced and stocked in a number of standard dimensions, from 1" through 3-7/16" bore, but other sizes are readily available by special order. The wood of choice for bearings had always been the extremely hard, slow-growing lignum vitae (literally, the "wood of life" -- the heaviest, densest wood in the world, weighing in at 80 pounds or more per cubic foot), until it was overharvested by other interests and ended up on the endangered list. Lignum vitae is now in very short supply; a block graded as "bearing grade" can easily cost $300 or more. Woodex currently uses rock maple, although lignum vitae is still available for highly specialized water-immersed applications such as jackstaff halyard bearings for U.S. Navy submarines. The company describes the operation of oil-impregnated wood bearings this way: When the inevitable sand or grit invades the journal interface, a wood bearing compresses, absorbing the pollutant into its surface, and covering it with a film of oil. The very substance which typically destroys shafts becomes a benign part of the bearing! The wood releases lubricant when the shaft begins to spin and the journal interface heats; when the shaft stops and the journal cools, the natural capillary action of the wood retrieves the lubricant. Woodex bearings are thus permanently lubricated. For its 25th anniversary celebration, more than 60 employees and family partied at the historic Boothbay Railway Village, where Woodex is a corporate sponsor. Tongue only partially in cheek, the company's unofficial slogan is, Woodex: on the cutting edge of low technology.