While visiting parts of China I was constantly approached by street vendors offering to sell me a “copy watch”. For a few dollars I could be sporting a facsimile of a $3000 Rolex. It would be very impressive unless I actually needed to know the correct time. Additionally reproductions of high end designer hand bags and designer clothes can be had for a fraction of the cost of an original.
No matter how we may feel about illegal copies, those items are unlikely to result in a potentially life threatening and costly failure. The same cannot be said for counterfeit bearings, many of which are used in safety critical applications. Unfortunately counterfeit bearings have flooded markets worldwide and present a very real danger for manufacturers.
To a trained eye, some counterfeits are easy to spot. There are often telltale signs of poor counterfeits. This may be from the surface finish to the size of the chamfer and radius, as well as roundness of the bearing.
However, as the counterfeiters gain experience in “knocking-off” high quality bearings it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish them from a genuine component. So difficult in fact, that sometimes it is impossible even for the OEM to differentiate them from a genuine part without laboratory analysis.
Often, and to avoid easy detection, the frauds are mixed in among the originals in a shipment. This makes spotting them in a random sample check a hit or miss proposition.
This bearing may look exactly like a genuine SKF BAHB 311443 AB HBU1. However, it will not perform like one. It is a fake. It may have an operational life of only a few hundred hours under rated load. “The fact that they may look more real only underscores the need for people to look beyond physical appearances and make sure they only buy from authorized dealers and distributors,” says SKF’s Colin Roberts.
At High Speed Technologies, Inc. we only purchase top name brand Super Precision ABEC 7 bearings from authorized distributors. That’s all we will use for your spindle repair. True, high quality spindle bearings are expensive, but that cost pales in comparison to increased down time caused by a premature bearing failure.
High Speed Technologies, Inc was founded in 1985 with a commitment to providing the very best spindle repair service. The very best spindle repair is only possible by using the very best spindle bearings.
While visiting parts of China I was constantly approached by street vendors offering to sell me a “copy watch”. For a few dollars I could be sporting a facsimile of a $3000 Rolex. It would be very impressive unless I actually needed to know the correct time. Additionally reproductions of high end designer hand bags and designer clothes can be had for a fraction of the cost of an original.
No matter how we may feel about illegal copies, those items are unlikely to result in a potentially life threatening and costly failure. The same cannot be said for counterfeit bearings, many of which are used in safety critical applications. Unfortunately counterfeit bearings have flooded markets worldwide and present a very real danger for manufacturers.
To a trained eye, some counterfeits are easy to spot. There are often telltale signs of poor counterfeits. This may be from the surface finish to the size of the chamfer and radius, as well as roundness of the bearing.
However, as the counterfeiters gain experience in “knocking-off” high quality bearings it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish them from a genuine component. So difficult in fact, that sometimes it is impossible even for the OEM to differentiate them from a genuine part without laboratory analysis.
Often, and to avoid easy detection, the frauds are mixed in among the originals in a shipment. This makes spotting them in a random sample check a hit or miss proposition.
This bearing may look exactly like a genuine SKF BAHB 311443 AB HBU1. However, it will not perform like one. It is a fake. It may have an operational life of only a few hundred hours under rated load. “The fact that they may look more real only underscores the need for people to look beyond physical appearances and make sure they only buy from authorized dealers and distributors,” says SKF’s Colin Roberts.
At High Speed Technologies, Inc. we only purchase top name brand Super Precision ABEC 7 bearings from authorized distributors. That’s all we will use for your spindle repair. True, high quality spindle bearings are expensive, but that cost pales in comparison to increased down time caused by a premature bearing failure.
High Speed Technologies, Inc was founded in 1985 with a commitment to providing the very best spindle repair service. The very best spindle repair is only possible by using the very best spindle bearings.