Are you looking for precision bearings for an aerospace, medical, or robotic application? How about an Extremely Large Telescope? Look no further. Alpine Bearing is now an authorized HQW distributor. The German bearing manufacturer has what you need. HQW started out as a bearing customizer. They used their Veitshöchheim, Germany plant to recondition and relubricate bearings for custom uses. In 2013, they began manufacturing themselves. Soon, they were supplying precision bearings to the aerospace, robotics, medical, and food & beverage industries. After building a second facility on their ..read more

Some people think bearings are boring. Those people are wrong. Sure, you might not live, breathe, and eat them like we do at Alpine Bearing, but we hope everyone can still share our love for these components. Bearings are precise, reliable, and beautifully engineered. Yet they can also be fun, weird, and even magical. Read on for facts about bearings in strange places, at astounding sizes and temperatures, and throughout history. Bearings in surprising locations Bearings help buildings survive earthquakes. The international terminal at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport is the largest building ..read more

Alpine Bearing is an authorized distributor for several major bearing companies including New Hampshire Ball Bearings, NMB Technologies, GRW and SKF. We enjoy having strong relationships with our manufacturing partners. But did you know those relationships confer advantages to you too? What is an authorized distributor? An authorized distributor is a company that sells the products of an Original Component Manufacturer (OCM) or Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) according to a certain agreement. The distributor signs a contract with the manufacturer. The terms can vary, but often include t ..read more

Chris Kane officially joined the Alpine team as Director of Sales, West Coast, on July 5th after visiting the Alpine headquarters in Boston.  Chris’ professional background Chris brings over a decade of experience in bearing sales and a deep understanding of the market to his new position. Excited to join the Alpine team, Chris looks forward to applying his experience, learning and deepening Alpine’s OEM sales.  Chris has a two-year degree from Loyola Marymount and a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership (BSOL) earned from Chapman University. After college, Chris’ love of ..read more

Photo by Sven Daniel on Unsplash When a machine stops, everything grinds to a halt. Preventing premature failure is important to maintaining your machines and reducing downtime, so you can be as productive as possible. Knowing what causes bearing failures will help to prevent premature failures and improve your shop’s efficiency. Causes of bearing failure According to research in Bearing News, the main causes of bearing failure are “the inappropriate lubrication of the bearing rolling elements (approximately 80% of the cases), inadequate bearing selection (10%), improper mounting (5%), indir ..read more

In the specialized world of machine tool spindle repair, downtime disrupts productivity and profit for machine shops. Optimizing precision and efficiency in your shop translates to improved machine running outcomes and more money. If time is money, then using the right bearings is golden. Schaeffler FAG HCM-series bearings are a great choice to help you improve efficiency.    Key features Looking to increase your motor spindles’ load-carrying capacity for speed, forces, and temperatures? Schaeffler FAG’s HCM-series spindle bearings deliver.   The HCM-series bearings come ..read more

Demanding applications and conditions require high-precision bearings made with top-quality materials. Do you stop your equipment frequently? Do your machines work at very high speeds? Do your machines run at high temperatures? Do you have a corrosive environment? If you answer yes to any of these, standard bearings will not suffice. You need the next generation of high-performance bearings featuring high-nitrogen alloy steel races. These bearings run faster, longer, and cooler than most on the market.  What is high-nitrogen steel, anyway? High-nitrogen steel is harder and stronger ..read more

Turbomolecular pumps, or turbo pumps, are serious business. Their rotors spin at incredible speeds, sucking powerfully enough to create a high vacuum. Whether your turbomolecular pump generates vacuums to run an electron microscope or enable thin film deposition for computer chips or solar panels, you’ll need specialized, super-high-quality bearings to run it safely and consistently. Only the best will do. And when a bearing fails, you’ll need to replace it in a hurry before a stalled pump affects your research or your bottom line. Luckily, Alpine Bearing has teamed up with the world’s best b ..read more

Technical standards, like ASTM standards for bearings which specify which steel recipe to use, help manufacturers make a consistent product. (Photo by yasin hm on Unsplash) If you’ve searched for bearings online, you’ve likely come across product descriptions boasting about meeting ANSI, ISO, or ASTM standards. You know the standards are a sign of quality – but who came up with them, and what do they mean? Technical standards help both manufacturers and buyers. Manufacturers use them to make and test materials and products in the most consistent way possible. Buyers use them to ensure they’r ..read more

Martin Ruegemer of Schaeffler Global Brand Protection and Frank Ziegler of Riwald Recycling prepare to destroy 30,000 counterfeit bearings. (Schaeffler/Berny Meyer) If you unwittingly buy a fake Rolex, you’ll be disappointed, but you’ll probably be okay. But if your new bearings are counterfeit, your equipment and the people who operate it are at risk. Why should you care about counterfeit bearings? There’s a reason you choose a reputable brand when you buy bearings: you want to know what you’re getting. Whether you’re installing bearings in an industrial robot, a helicopter, or a Mars rover ..read more