|
|
|
|
|
The eBearing News
September 28, 2005
Miba and KS in Bearing Strip
Joint Venture
copyright © 2005 eBearing Inc.
Miba Bearings US LLC (USA, in the Bearings Group of Miba AG, Austria) and
KS Bearings Inc. (USA, a division of Kolbenschmidt Pierburg AG, Germany, a subsidiary of
Rheinmetall AG, Germany) have joined forces to manufacture bearing strip in the United States.
The venture also signals the first steps in likely deeper business relationships between
the two plain bearing manufacturers.
The new company, Advanced Bearings Materials, LLC (ABM, USA) is a 50% / 50% co-owned
and co-managed joint venture. The purpose of setting up ABM is to manufacture cast lead
and leadfree bronze and hybrid bearing materials and alloys to be used in producing plain bearings.
ABM will supply both Miba and KS plants in the United States, Germany and Austria.
The venture takes over what is now an underutilized KS Bearing strip plant in Greensburg, Indiana.
Greensburg had been KS Bearing's strip and bearing manufacturing facilities, but in 2002
the bearing manufacturing operations were moved to Fountain Inn, South Carolina.
article: KS closing Indiana bearing factory
The Greensburg strip plant is 85,000 square feet and will have 36 employees on
the floor when production as Advanced Bearing Materials is initiated in November 2005.
Although the two
companies both produce plain shell engine bearings, journal bearings, bushings and similar
products, they have minimal product line and market overlaps.
KS said, "The product ranges of Miba and KS dovetail ideally. Whereas KS Gleitlager chiefly
focuses on passenger car and light commercial vehicle applications, Miba as world-market and
technology leader for medium-speed diesels, supplies the manufacturers of high-volume engines used in
heavy-duty trucks, ships, locomotives, etc."
David Mosier, KS Bearings President, said: "The joint venture represents an ideal fit for our two
companies and the products we produce. ABM also lays the groundwork for future cooperative
efforts between the two firms."
Announcing the deal, the companies issued a statement noting it allows Miba to, "secure a long-term
supply of cast-lead bronze and improve the quality of its bearings, and allows KS to
boost the volume-cost critical output of the Greensburg facility."
In the future, the companies said they may cooperate on projects such as joint development
of lead-free bearing materials and coating systems, sharing existing testing facilities
and opening up new markets.
KS Bearings North America, headquartered in Fountain Inn, produces bearings, thrust washers, and
small-end bushings for automotive and heavy-duty truck engines The division is targeting North
American OEM automotive applications and expanding its engine bearing product line. The company
also produces metallic transmission bushings and washers.
In all, parent Kolbenschmidt Pierburg AG has four operations in North America, with production
facilities in Fountain Inn; Greensburg, Indiana (bearing strip); Fort Wayne, Indiana (pistons); Marinette,
Wisconsin (pistons), and Leamington, Ontario, Canada (pistons). Its North American sales offices,
for the OEM auto and truck industry, are in Southfield, Michigan.
Miba Bearings US LLC is headquartered in McConnelsville, Ohio, the former Federal-Mogul Glacier Clevite
Heavywall Bearing Division plant acquired in 2001.
article: Federal-Mogul divesting McConnelsville heavywall plant
article: Miba acquires F-M heavywall plant in McConnelsville
Miba AG is the holding company for a group of original equipment manufacturers which supply the
international engine and vehicle industries. Miba Gleitlager AG began in 1947 and is the large-bearing
market leader in Europe, second in the world. Its Bearing Group has operations in Austria, Germany,
Singapore, Japan and the USA, manufacturing high-performance bearings for diesel and gas engines.
Both the Greensburg and McConnelsville plants have convoluted, overlapping ownership histories.
McConnelsville came to Miba via F-M via its acquisition of T&N plc, and at least two other acquisition
roll-ups, had originally been a Clevite engine bearing plant. Similarly, Greensburg came to KS via
T&N, and has a convoluted acquisition history under Kolbenschmidt, T&N, a Brazilian company, and others.
|
|
|
printer-friendly version
|
|
- by Bruce A. Carr
from individual research,
tips and commercial sources.
Bruce Carr edited this content.
Copyrighted material; unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
|
|
eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Copyright 1999-2011, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright information is on www.copyright.com
Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
eBearing Inc, eBearing.com, and "... for everything that moves" are registered
trademarks of eBearing Inc.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright © 1999-2011, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered trademarks of eBearing Inc.
|
|
|
