SUMMER INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

A STUDY OF BEARING MANUFACTURING

AT
BALL BEARING DIVISION, DRAC DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL ENGINEERING INDUSTRIES Ltd.
JAIPUR

Submitted to:
Dr. Mervin Herbert
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
National Institute of Technology, Surathkal

Submitted by:
Ashish Gaur
12ME24 , Mech Dept
B.Tech, IVth Year

ABSTRACT
Through this report, I have tried to present a comprehensive study of
the various functionalities and responsibilities of NBC Bearings. Starting from
the overview of the company till the explanation of various type of process
i.e. heat treatment, grinding, facing and the different type of machines used
in that processes like for grinder, machines for honing & super finishing
machines are available, for heat treatment rotary hearth furnace and tampering
furnace and CNC machines. This report tries to throw light on each and every
aspect of the NBC Bearings.

INDEX

S.NO

TITLE

company profile
Technical collaboration

Introduction of NBC JAIPUR

Ball Bearing Department

i) Introduction
ii)

Ball bearing

iii) Bearing materials

iv)Manufacturing processes of Ball bearing
v) Heat treatment and laboratory
vi) Grinding Section
vii) Maintenance and inspection section
viii) Assembly section
4

Comparisons between NBC Bearing and Bajaj Bearing

Main Customers

CONCLUSION and REFERENCES

1. Company profile
The renowned industrialist, late Shree B. M. Birla founded National Engineering Industries Ltd.,
Jaipur in the year 1946 as a pioneer industry in the field of bearing manufacture, under the name
of "National Bearing Company Ltd."
The first bearing was manufactured in 1950 with a modest start of 30,000 bearings in 19 sizes.
The company is now manufacturing nearly 3.8 million bearings per month in over 500 different
sizes ranging from 6 mm bore to 1300 mm outer diameter and has the capacity to manufacture
bearings upto 2000 mm outer diameter. At NEI, the development of bearings is a never ending
job. With ever increasing activities and grant of industrial licenses for other vital industries and
manufacturing of Roller Bearing Axle Boxes for Railway Rolling Stock, Steel Balls, Tapered
Roller Bearings, Spindle Inserts etc., the name of the company was changed in 1958 to "National
Engineering Industries Ltd." retaining its original trade mark NBC.
The industry is spread over 118 acres of land in Jaipur and 56 acres in Gunsi (Newai). This is the
only unit in the country manufacturing wide variety and range of bearings such as Ball Bearings,
Steel Balls, Tapered Roller Bearings, Cylindrical Roller Bearings & Axle Boxes for Railway
Rolling Stock including Spherical Roller Bearings, Cartridge Tapered Roller Bearings and Large
Diameter special Bearings in separate fully equipped factories.
NBC Bearings are widely used by 2 and 3 Wheelers, Cars, Trucks, Tractors, Electric Motors,
Railway wagon, Coach and Locomotive manufacturers as Original Equipment and Steel Mills,
Heavy Engineering Plants, Bulldozers, Shovels, Tillers and Thermal Power Plants all across the
country.

Technical collaboration
(i) BRENCO Incorporated of U.S.A. Since 1982 - For Cartridge Tapered Roller Bearings for
Railroad applications.
(ii) NTN Corporation of JAPAN Since 1985 - For Ball Bearings, Cylindrical & Spherical Roller
Bearings, JPU Bearings, Double Row Angular Contact Bearings, Hub Bearings Since 1997 - for
Tapered Roller bearings.
(iii) Izumi Kinzoku of JAPAN Since 1996 for remanufacturing, retrofitting and overhauling of
Grinding and Super-finishing machines for bearing races.

NBC Jaipur
2. Introduction
This plant is located in the heart of Pink City of India, which is also famous for its Tourists spots.
Spread over a total area of 4,78,900 m2 and a covered area of 75,310 m2, Jaipur plant has state
of the art manufacturing facilities and capable to manufacture all types of Ball and Roller
Bearings of NEI product range. . It has separate division to manufacture all these spread across
large area. The plant at Jaipur includesi.
Ball Bearing
ii.
Precision Ball Making
iii.
Tapered Roller Bearing
iv. Railway Bearing
v. Research & Development
vi.
Large diameter bearings
vii.
SAP-ERP

3 Ball Bearing Department

3.1. . Introduction
I did my training at Ball Baring Department .This division is spread over covered area of 4,855
Sq. Meters. The manufacturing of Ball Bearings was started in the year 1950 for different
vehicles (2-3 wheels, cars trucks) with designs, technology, machines and equipment procured
from the collaborators .Ball bearing has bore (minimum) 10 mm and outer diameter (maximum)
160 mm. These bearings are used in the country as original equipment as well as in other
countries such as U.S., China, and Indonesia.

3.2. Ball bearing

A ball bearing is a type of rolling element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation
between the bearing races. The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and
support radial and axial loads. It achieves this by using at least two races to contain the balls and
transmit the loads through the balls. In most applications, one race is stationary and the other is
attached to the rotating assembly (e.g., a hub or shaft). As one of the bearing races rotates it
causes the balls to rotate as well. Because the balls are rolling they have a much lower coefficient
of friction than if two flat surfaces were sliding against each other.

Ball bearings tend to have lower load capacity for their size than other kinds of rolling element
bearings due to the smaller contact area between the balls and races. However, they can tolerate
some misalignment of the inner and outer races.

fig1:-Single Row deep groove

fig2:- Double Row self aligninig Ball Bearing

Various types of Ball Bearing

a) Single Row Deep Groove
The Single Row radial ball bearing has a single row of balls and can take pure radial, loads
within its load capacity. It is widely used because it can operate at very high speeds due to its low
torque and is cost-effective at an economical price.
b) Angular Contact bearing
i) Single Row Angular Contact
The Single Row Angular Contact ball bearings have higher axial load capacity than the
Single Row Radial ball bearings. The bearings can carry axial load in one direction only and are
to adjusted against another bearing.
ii) Double Row Angular Contact
They are designed to accommodate and simultaneously action axial and radial loads.
Due to angular contact the axial load carrying capacity of angular contact ball bearings increases
as the contact angle increases.
c) Self Aligning
a) Single Row Externally Aligning Ball Bearing
The Single Row Externally Aligning ball bearings are used where accurate alignment
cannot be ensured between bearing positions. This bearing type can mainly take radial loads.
Axial loads can also be accommodated.

b) Double Row Self Aligning BalI Bearing

The Double Row Self-Aligning ball bearings have a common outer spherical race for
both the rows. They can take radial loads and very light axial loads. They can be located endwise
in both directions.

3.3. Bearing materials.

The major criteria to be considered for the satisfactory performance of bearing including
material selection and processing with resultant physical properties.
Common Material
High-carbon chromium bearing steel: Gcr15 Gcr15SiMn and SAE 52100 Other Material
Carburized bearing steel
Abrasion and corrosive resistance bearing steel
Heat resistance bearing steel
Bearing Cage Material
Non-ferrous metal: Brass HPb59-1, bronze QAL10-3-1.5, Aluminum alloy LY11CZ
Ferrous Metal:

Quality carbon steel thin plate

Non-metal: Engineering nylon, Phenolic adhesive .

3.4. Manufacturing processes of Ball bearing

NBC gets forged and roller bearings from their vendors, as there are no separate dept. for forging
or rolling. Than they do carburizing or other heat treatment to strengthen the bearing or finally
grinding or other finishing operation is performed to make it able to operate in automotive
vehicle, railway etc. The processes through which bearing has to go are shown in flow diagram
below-

Fig: 3 Flow diagram of material flow in industry.

EXPLAINATION OF VARIOUS SECTIONS

3.5. Heat treatment and laboratory
Heat treatment of bearing steel components necessitates heating and cooling under controlled
atmospheric conditions to impact the desired material characteristics and properties such as
hardness, a diffused high carbon surface layer, high fracture toughness or ductility, high tensile
strength, improved machinability, proper grain size, or reduced stress state. The specific thermal
cycles that produce these material characteristics are:
(i) Carburizing :- Carburizing is a is a heat treatment process to strengthen the
bearing. Carburizing is performed 940 to 980c in rotary hearth furnace with time of 10hrs.
(ii) Hardening :- Hardening furnace has four chambers. First chamber is at 840 0C and rest
three chambers are at 850 0C. After the hardening furnace bearing material (steel) is converted
into austenite form.R-Gas is a mixture of CO+H 2+N2+CO2+H2O (LPG+air) in the presence of RGas hardening process carried out.
(iii) Quenching :- Quenching is a process of cooling a metal at a rapid rate. Oil used in the
quenching process is kept at a temperature of 250C. Agitator is used to stir the oil in the oil
quenching tank.
(iv) Tampering :- This process relives the internal stresses thus improving the ductility . The
tempering temperature is about 200 C for 2.5 hrs.
(v) Stress reliving :- This process also relives the internal stresses thus improving the ductility.

fig4 :- Flow chart of Heat Treatment

3.6. Grinding Section

Grinding is a finishing process used to improve surface finish, abrade hard materials, and tighten
the tolerance on flat and cylindrical surfaces by removing a small amount of material. In
grinding, an abrasive material rubs against the metal part and removes tiny pieces of material.
During the grinding operations coolant is used regularly. Coolant is mixture of water and oil. In
coolant percentage of oil 3.5% and rest is water. For O.D grinding in N.E.I. Ltd. HOCUT B-60
oil is used.

3.6.1. Operation steps to outer race grinding

(a) Face grinding :- Facing of outer ring(cup) also takes place between two facing wheel, out of
which one wheel is hard and one wheel is soft. Soft wheel used to take into account wear
resistance of hard wheel. After facing inspection takes place with the tolerance of 40
micrometers. Flange width also checked with the tolerance of 15 micrometers
(b) Track grinding :- Track is the path on which rollers will move so track of the cup should be
grinded properly. So that rollers will move smoothly.
(c) Honing machine (cup super finishing):- As rollers will move on the track so the track
surface should be super finished so the rollers will move smoothly. For this purpose honing is
done.

3.6.2. Operational step to grind Inner race:

(a) O.D. grinding :- OD is the circumferential surface of the inner race of the bearing. The OD
should be surface finished since the bearing has to be assembled in machine
(b) Face grinding :- . Facing wheel grinding machine grind the face of races at an average
speed of 225 races per hour with maximum capacity of 550 races per hour. After facing
inspection of dimension also checked to ensure to quality of grinded face.
(c)Flange grinding :- . It is obtain in the flange grinding machine. In this machine one grinding
stone is used to cut and grind the flange portion of cone. Tool movement during grinding is in all
three dimensional axes i.e. X, Y, Z axis.
(d) Bore grinding :- Bore is the inner circumferential surface of the bearing. The bore should be
surface finished since the bearing has to be assembled in machine.
(e) Honing machine (super finishing) :- Honing is an abrasive machining process that
produces a precision surface on a metal work piece by scrubbing an abrasive stone against it
along a controlled path. Honing is primarily used to improve the geometric form of a surface, but
may also improve the surface texture.

fig5 :- Grinding of outer diameter

fig6:- honing and tracking process

3.8. Maintenance and inspection section

3.8.1 For machines
Maintenance and inspection is that section where various types of machines, tools and machine
parts are inspected for life requirement and better working features. Various types of pressure

gauges, vibration inspection machines and the noise inspection machines are the special features
of this section.
3.8.2. For bearing components
All these inspections are done manually and automatically
Inline Inspection After every specific operation there is checking of bearing components (1 out
of 20) through gauging processes like width, track or bore gauge after width, bore or track
grinding Resp.
Final Inspection when the complete grinding of a particular product is completed like for cone
all processes width, bore or track grinding is completed than it sent to final inspection. In Final
Inspection we detect crack check by two methods:
1- Crack check Machine :- magnetic flux is used
2- Demagnetize Washing

fig7:- inspection of a part

Inner race

fig8:- inspection of bore of

Demagnetized in Assembly section

As we have noticed that material is demagnetized in the assembly section
because bearings will be set at a place where they will rotate and we know if
a magnet will rotate then it will produce electric field. So it may hamper the
other activities of the system. In machines it will tend to attract the machine
parts.

3.7. Assembly section

The assembly part in NEI is done automatically and manually. The parts after going through
various in line inspection or a separate inspection for all bearing components sent to assembly
line. In assembly line each parts width, bore, track is checked again through various gauges.
Assembly of Ball Bearings Components: -It includes
a) Inner race.
b) Outer race.
c) Retainer Section.

d) Cage.
e) Balls

fig9 :- CNC machines in a row for assembling

fig10:- parts need to be assembled

4. Comparisons between NBC Bearing and Bajaj BearingTable:1 Comparison between NBC Bearing and Bajaj Bearing
Type
Stake

NBC Bearing
11%

Bajaj Bearing
3.7%

Turnover(2012-13)

Rs. 1326 crores

Rs. 204 crores

Quantity
Range

45.6 Million Bearings per 7.592 Million Bearings per annum

annum
6mm bore to 1300 mmOD
11mm bore to 95mm OD

Quality(Rejection)

1 PPM

6PPM

Customers

More than 34 big industries 12 industries in India and 21 other

and 21 countries
countries

5. Main Customers
Rolling Stock:
DLW (Diesel Locomotive Work)
CLW (Chittaranjan Locomotive Works)
ICF (Integral Coach Factory, Chennai)
RCF (Rail Coach Factor, Kapurthala)
CIMMCO
BEML (Bharat Earth Movers, Bangalore)
Hindustan Motors Ltd.
Maruti Udyog Ltd.
Mahindra & Mahindra
Tractors: Eicher
Escorts
HMT
International tractors
Mahindra & Mahindra
Punjab Tractors
TAFE
VST Tillers
Fans: Bajaj Electricals
Crompton Greaves

Automobiles-LCV, Two/ Three Wheelers

Ashok Leyland
Force Motors
Eicher Motors
Tata Motors
Bajaj Auto Ltd.
Hero Honda Motors Ltd.
Suzuki Motorcycle India
Royal Enfield Ltd.
TVS
Yamaha Motors India Pvt. Ltd
Electric Motors & Pumps
Crompton Greaves
G.E. Motors
Kirloslar Electric
NGEF
MICO

6. CONCLUSION
Maximum of their work was done and automatically manually. But now
days they are trying to set up new NOVA CNC machines. It will reduce the
human effort or will increase productivity up to a large extent. This setting up
of new nova machines will place the NBC at a position to compete with other
worldwide bearings mfg. co.
Visiting NBC , Jaipur was a learning experience for me. I got to learn the
practical aspects of various dept. (Heat treatment, Grinding) in Ball bearings
section . I came to know Industrial applications of all types of grinding and
finishing processes. Got a brief idea about various heat treatment processes
along-with their industrial use. And how all the maintenance and inspections
is done on in line processing or after processing. I was also introduced to the
work culture in an industry, and the importance of team work and
coordination.

REFERENCES
The material in this report has been gathered from INTERNET :Company website
Wikipedia