NBC Bearings is the brand of National Engineering Industries Limited (NEIL), a part of

CKA Birla Group CKA Birla Group (previously CK Birla Group) is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Birla Tower on Barakhamba Road, New Delhi, India. The group has been historically led by industrialists Braj Mohan Birla and Ganga Prasad B ...

. National Engineering Industries (NEIL) was founded in 1946 and is engaged in the manufacturing of bearings for the automotive,

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, industrial, and aerospace industries. It sells bearings under the brand name NBC Bearings and exports them to at least 30+ countries, including the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

History

National Bearings Company Limited (NBC) was founded in Jaipur by Shri B. M. Birla in a technical collaboration with Hoffman, UK in the year 1946. It began with the production of ball bearings from the year 1950. Following a political change in the princely state of Hyderabad, the company was renamed as National Engineering Industries Limited. In June 2020, NEI acquired the European based bearing manufacturer Kinex Bearings & Global Supply. In 2022, NBC Global Ag also opened its Global Technology Centre NBC Global (Germany) GmbH in Germany to support innovation. NBC Global AG also established NBC Kaili, (Ningbo) Precision Bearing Company, in

Ningbo Ningbo is a sub-provincial city in northeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises six urban districts, two satellite county-level cities, and two rural counties, including several islands in Hangzhou Bay and the Eas ...

, China. In October 2023, NBC partnered with FOGTEC to provide fire detection and suppression systems to

Indian railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

Facilities

The company has five manufacturing facilities located at

Jaipur Jaipur (; , ) is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the List of cities and towns in Rajasthan, largest city of the north-western States and union territories of India, Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had ...

, Newai and

Manesar Manesar is a town and municipal corporation, known as New gurgaon city in the Gurugram district of the state of Haryana, India and a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi. It is an Industrial Model Township home to factories and ...

and Savli (Vadodara). Apart from the bearing production, the company also produces Next- Gen products. The employee strength is 2800 across five plants.12 Rail Business, Volume 4, Issue 19-May 2013 In April 2024, NBC setup a new plant in

Bagru Bagru is a town and a municipality in Jaipur district (Tehsil Sanganer) in the state of Rajasthan, India. It is located approximately 32 km southwest of Jaipur, along the Jaipur-Ajmer Road. History Bagru was the site of the Battle of Bagr ...

Jaipur district Jaipur District is a district in the state of Rajasthan in Northern India.the city of Jaipur, which is Rajasthan's capital and the largest city, is the district headquarters. It is the tenth most populous district in India (out of 640). Etymo ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

, India.

Capacity

NBC makes 200 million bearings annually across its five plants. The NBC brand commands a market share of 24% in the domestic market. Approximately 70% of NEIL's sales come from original equipment manufacturers and 30% from the replacement market. The turnover approximates 60% from the auto sector (OEM and aftermarket), 30% for railway products and 10% from the low volume industrial applications.

Technology

NEIL uses a

heat treatment Heat treating (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are a ...

machine (furnace) from Chugairo,

. The grinding technology is sourced from Izumi of

, Nova of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, LMT of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and FMT of

. NEIL operates 22 grinding lines out of which 17 are used for Deep Groove

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 ...

(DGBB) and five are used for Double Row Angular Contact (DRAC) Bearings. NEIL maintains technical collaborations with NTN (Japan) and Amsted Rail (Brenco, USA).

Research and development

The company has developed a low torque bearing that can reduce friction up to 20%, which results in

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency (or fuel economy) is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical energy, chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or Mechanical work, w ...

. The company spends 1% of its turnover on R & D activities, with an eye on increasing it to 2% in the coming years. The company holds a number of patents born from its research activities.

Awards

*NBC Bearing received Deming Award in 2010 and Deming Grand Prize in 2015. The Deming Award is the world's oldest and most widely recognized quality award.

References

{{reflist Manufacturing companies of India Companies based in Rajasthan Economy of Jaipur CK Birla Group Indian brands Indian companies established in 1946 Manufacturing companies established in 1946 Bearing manufacturers Engineering companies of India Economy of India