Movement is what a vehicle is meant to do. To make it happen, wheel bearings have an essential role in the system. Autoparts from Spain’s Automotive bearing manufacturers, now give us a closer look on automotive wheel bearing. Where can we find a better explanation than the one the Spanish leading automotive manufacturers of bearings have for us?
Automotive bearing manufacturers such as Fersa, IRB o Metalcaucho tell us about everything on the past, the present and the future of automotive wheel bearings.
The wheel bearing is a key automotive component. This is what allows wheels to turn. They were created because of the necessity to increase speed and solve problems linked to friction.
The bearings are items whose function is transferring movement, however they are also able to absorb load and transmit strength. The bearings are used in all types of machinery since their gyration reduces friction among the axis and the different movement items in the system to ensure motricity.
Leonardo da Vinci was the first one to draw an item to be considered a bearing. The inventor eventually realized that friction would be less intense if balls did not touch each other. He then came up with the idea of separation which allows balls to move freely. Anyway, the real historic milestone for the bearings happened during the industrial revolution. During that period, the bearing adapts to its environment and helps out technical problems, industrial development, therefore a change in the way of life paradigm.
In the 20th century, specifically in 1906, the Swedish engineer Sven Gustav Wingqvist patented this item in the automotive sector, because of relevance in the vehicle functioning.
The different types of bearings are as follows:
The most common bearings are radial and thrust ones. Both types are able to absorb weight and transmit lateral or axis-turning movements, in some cases, they are able to do both actions at the same time.
Both types of bearings are characterized by carrying, as a rolling item, some small balls or rollers usually made of plastic or metal.
They are formed of:
At the beginning, the wheel setting used standardized bearings in a single row of cone-shaped rollers or balls, made in pieces. As time has gone by, new bearing generations have been developed and the bearings have more functions and features every time.
In fact, nowadays, the majority of vehicles are equipped with bearings providing auxiliary information for the ABS system, the TCS system, the ESP system besides GPS and the electric parking brake which adds a safety component character.
The bearings are placed in diverse movement transmission components in the vehicle such as spindles, steering racks or gearboxes. They are usually embedded, built-in or held up with elastic items.
Autoparts from Spain gathers a wide list of Spanish automotive manufacturing companies working on for international expansion of the Spanish automotive component supplier industry, together with high productivity and quality, qualified human assets, a relevant I+D investment and a serious commitment to environmental sustainability.
Among automotive bearing manufacturers linked to Autoparts from Spain, we can find some outstanding component manufacturers such as:
Fersa is a Spanish multinational devoted to design, develop, manufacture and distribute high-quality, full bearing solutions for the automotive market. Since 2016 they are part of Fersa Group together with the Austrian industrial bearing manufacturer NKE.
As automotive bearing manufacturer, Fersa covers a wide range of components and bearings:
IRB was founded, more than 60 years ago, to be a provider for parts to manufacturers such as Ford, Santana, Chrysler, Peugeot, Renault, Citroën or Iveco, among others. Currently, they are a global provider with a big catalog of wheel bearings and tensors as well as kits for the automotive spare-parts market
As bearing manufactured IRB makes:
Metalcaucho is a company devoted, for more than 30 years, to the sector of rubber and metal accessories and spare parts for cars. They work with all global brands. As automotive bearing manufacturer, Metalcaucho is focused on ball and cylindrical bearings.
Spanish automotive bearing manufacturers, in particular, and the Spanish automotive component sector in general, have an outstanding role in the automotive industry at international scale.
Spanish automotive company manufactures are present in more than 170 countries with half of their whole billing volume represented in exports.
In this context, the component and equipment sector has a key role in the vehicle value chain, contributing with around 75% of it.
At Autoparts from Spain, we support the Spanish component sector gathering many of these manufacturers in our platform. They are the ones that best represent the Spanish Branding (Marca España) in the automotive component manufacturing business.
The Spanish automotive industry is well-known internationally because of its excellence and innovation capabilities.
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