Tokyo, Japan, March 24, 2010 – NSK Ltd. (NSK; Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO: Norio Otsuka) announced today that it has developed highly corrosion resistant, high hardness, stainless steel ESZ bearings for use in corrosive environments. NSK will launch the new bearings in April 2010 and expects annual sales to reach 0.3 billion yen by 2011.

NSK's SPACEA™ Series of bearings and linear guide products are specially designed for the needs of special environments, including vacuum, clean, corrosive and other demanding environments. NSK has now developed highly corrosion resistant, high hardness, stainless steel ESZ bearings suited to acidic, alkaline, and other corrosive environments and added them to the SPACEA™ Series.

The new bearings deliver a longer service life under acidic, alkaline, and other corrosive environments. They are ideal for use in supporting the rollers that transfer the high performance film used in solar panels and liquid crystal panels. The medium-size bearings use a cage made of polyether ether ketone (PEEK) resin, which provides excellent strength and corrosion resistance. These features will enable the new bearings to accommodate the development of the larger transfer rollers needed as solar panels and displays continue to grow in size.

The new bearings’ outstanding corrosion resistance also makes them excellent for transport systems in fields related to food product machinery and medical devices for cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilizing.