Chinese SKF Bearings!!!

[KWentling]

I pulled over 100 bearings from Class 8 KWs that said SKF - China in them ove a 18 month period, all at avout 400,000 miles when the seals failed after routine fluid changes (something in the seal/lube didn't get along I guess). Over 50% of the bearings showed advanced (for 400K) wear, spalling and pitting which was not normal for on-highway light loads at moderate speeds and excellant (more than "by the book") maintenance intervals.

I too ask for Timkin bearings or Brower/BCA as a second choice, never SKFs after my past experience with them.

I will add that there is a HUGE problem with pirated parts, from many sources affecting most major brands you can think of.

If the components those bearing came out of were manufactured in Asia, they could be there legitimately and be the real deal only made in China. I would hope that SKF would be sure that they were of equal quality before allowing putting their name on them.

Kim

 

[tulenutn2o]

I pulled over 100 bearings from Class 8 KWs that said SKF - China in them ove a 18 month period, all at avout 400,000 miles when the seals failed after routine fluid changes (something in the seal/lube didn't get along I guess). Over 50% of the bearings showed advanced (for 400K) wear, spalling and pitting which was not normal for on-highway light loads at moderate speeds and excellant (more than "by the book") maintenance intervals.

I too ask for Timkin bearings or Brower/BCA as a second choice, never SKFs after my past experience with them.

I will add that there is a HUGE problem with pirated parts, from many sources affecting most major brands you can think of.

Just proves that china crap is junk. Of course we already knew that.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Not everything made in China is junk. They can make to any quality level just like US manufactures. Just look at the vehicles the Big 3 were putting out 20 years ago. They were junk compared to the imports. Now we are back on par.

By the way, many aircraft are now being made overseas. Would you fly in them?

As for the Timkin bearings there was a discussion about them being made in China on the trailers/transportation forum a year ago or so. Many are now made in China.

Chris

 

[whistlepig]

The Chinese can make quality stuff but from what I have seen the quality is inconsistent. Our bearings have to be carefully checked form batch to batch. Sometimes we get a good batch and sometimes we get a bad batch. From what I have seen the stuff coming from Mexico seems to have better quality control.

 

[ModMech]

It is more than FACT that Chinese manufacturers can make EXCALLENT quality components and machines. It does not appear that those are the items that get imported to the USA and I believe that the reason is there is not enough profit in the export of those higher quality items.

Restated, China makes lots of excellant stuff, they would not be where they are if they didn't or couldn't. But, add the cost of shipping to the high quality stuff and it's no less expensive than good old Made in the USA parts of the same quality, so there is no reason to use off-shore stuff.

 

[whistlepig]

I think we are turning a blind eye towards the Chinese stuff.

 

[Shmudda]

China will try to duplicate and copy anything. I attended a bearing seminar at Timken about a year ago and it was truly amazing what pictures they had of Chinese manufactures trying to pedal copied Timken products. The boxes, crates, and clean down to the part numbers were very close to the Timken products. One has to look VERY close to even tell the difference between products, that is until the Chinese JUNK fails in about 1/4 of the time!

I purchased some FAG bearings not long ago and they had stamped right on them "Made in China".........

Craig

 

[tulenutn2o]

Diamond. while your statement is somewhat true, the fact that we never know if the stuff we are getting is the good stuff or the crap stuff, does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling to rely on a china made product in a critical situation. If a bearing goes out on a lawnmower, no big deal. If a bearing goes out in a jet turbine, major bad deal. Quality and consistency out of China is too suspect for me. But given their success at selling junk to the world and becoming rich, maybe the USA should use their business model and slave labor to get us back in the black. When you buy chinese products, you are supporting the state and all it's abuses of it's people and helping to fuel the fire in them to destroy their competition. Anybody with the right tools, training,materials, and will, can build a top notch product, but will they when profit and greed take hold?

 

[wvpolekat]

Just because something is made in China, it is not automatically junk. They are very capable of making quality items.

The confusion comes because the mfg that are having these things made in China TELL THEM to make it as cheap as possible. That is exactly what they get. It is all profit driven.

If a mfg goes to them and gives them specs to make a quality product, that is exactly what they will get.

It's no different than having it made here or anywhere else. Tell them to make junk, they make junk. The blame needs to be put on the companies having parts made there as cheaply as possible.

Look at it this way... They can order a part in made in China as cheaply as possible for 1/5 the cost of elsewhere. They just increased their margin by a HUGE amount. If it fails twice before they get a good one, they still made more money than they would have with the quality part. It's a gamble.

We as customers drive this behavior by shopping for the lowest possible price. There is a place for that, but if we change or habits, they will change theirs.

Now, that being said, counterfeits are a completely different animal. They make them with no regard for quality because they will not have to deal with failures. That goes for them no matter where they are made.

 

[tulenutn2o]

I understand the corporate world and that everything is driven by the bottom line. While blame is, almost always,put on the consumer demanding cheaper goods. Would this possibly be a by-product of the EXCESSIVE salary differential between a CEO and the average worker? I certainly think so. I believe that consumers are forced to demand the cheapest because they can't afford any better. Mega corporations are more than willing to imply that these cheap goods(these two can rarely be used together with a straight face) are every bit as good as their higher priced counterparts. This used to be a valid argument between generic canned goods and name brand, but that cannot be said today necessarily. Canned goods used to roll down the line and get different stickers put on the same cans as name brand, now China is in that mix. Scares the **** outta me, having China in our food chain too. Bottom line is this: We cannot control what China does, do we really think that we can control their quality, or prevent the counterfeiting, on any level? All driven by greed. Period!I will continue to avoid China products best I can until I have to start speaking Chinese. Which, by the way, isn't gonna happen in my lifetime. Buy your China crap if you like, but understand you become a part of the problem every time you do.