Designed to Double the Rated Fatigue Life and Facilitate Machinery Downsizing

Tokyo, Japan, October 29, 2009 – NSK Ltd. (NSK; Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO: Norio Otsuka) announced today that it has developed and started shipping samples of general-purpose, shielded deep groove ball bearings with high load capacity, designed for use wherever bearings with a high load capacity are needed, such as in motor speed reducers, industrial pumps, agricultural machinery, and drum washing machines.

There is a need to increase bearing load ratings to extend the service life of bearings used under heavy loads. However, enlarging bearings is not always an option, since there may be limited space inside machinery or a need to avoid the increased friction loss*1 caused by larger bearings in order to save energy.

NSK developed the new general-purpose, shielded deep groove ball bearings with high load capacity to meet these needs, and they have the distinctive features detailed in the section below. The new product is designed to improve maintainability through longer service life and to contribute to energy savings through lower torque. The company expects annual sales of 200 million yen for this product by fiscal 2011.

*1 Friction loss: resistance generated when bearings rotate