In the design of a bearing, there are certain areas of knowledge that can be considered as of key importance:
• Product design: internal and external geometry
• Materials
• Surface finish
• Lubrication conditions
Because of its condition as an SME, FERSA BEARINGS seeks, selects and signs long-term collaboration agreements with a series of technological centres that allow it to extend the in-house engineering resources and efficiently and satisfactorily cover each of these key areas.
The outcome of this strategy is the establishment of the NBE or Network for Bearing Excellence, with FERSA BEARINGS as the core and dynamic leader of the network, and the various technological centres as inter-related satellites.
FERSA BEARINGS also belongs to other innovative organisations such as the CAAR (Aragonese Automotion Cluster).
The physical manifestation of this network of excellence at the FERSA facilities is the CBE or Centre for Bearing Excellence, a laboratory containing the necessary technical resources for the design, development and validation of the new product lines:
1) Tools for the analytical calculation of bearings applications, such as wheel shafts, transmission systems or differentials. These tools have been developed by FERSA in collaboration with the ITA
2) Mechanical and dynamic simulation, for both bearings and applications, through the use of ABAQUS software.
3) Physical testing resources, both internal and external
This equipment enables the performance of life measurement tests A to B comparative tests and reliability tests.