Mounted Bearing Units

M o unte dBe a r ingU nit s

There is currently a silent revolution ongoing, at the shadow of the pandemic,in optimizing the design, functionalities, mount-ability, and traceability ofmounted bearing units. Several bearing producers are trying to upgradetheir product and add new functionalities to it. While one of these companies,already implemented key innovations at the mounted bearing units, whichreduces the total cost of ownership of the end-user by -40% through its uniquedesign, outstanding quality, and optimized mounting capabilities.The company behind this unique product is COC Inc. We have tried to revealthe story behind this revolutionary design and innovation of the COC mountedbearing units, during an interview with Eiichi Kobayashi, Chief Executive Officerat COC Inc. and the former President of FYH bearings. Eiichi Kobayashi’sstory is one with full of passion for quality, and a 70-year long tradition ofinnovation.68Bearing News

I love the mounted bearing units and Ithink most people don’t even know whatmounted bearing units are. My fatherstarted to make mounted ball bearingunits for the first time in Japan in 1950.That was FYH bearings. He was a keenengineer and designed machines tomake those bearings and made themby himself. So mounted bearings werealways part of my life. My father told mehe studied the bearing design from SealMaster catalogs for his first bearings.His unique machines allowed a tight fitbetween the inserts and housing. Theinserts were interchangeable with anyother unit. Other manufacturers includingSeal Master had to choose the inserts andhousings to find the right fit for assembleand they weren’t interchangeable.“I left FYH in 2018 and would have retired,but I still loved mounted bearing units somuch and decided to finish the projectswhich I could not finish at FYH.My focus was to produce the best for thecustomers although some distributorsmight not like the products getting a longerlife, so they could sell more bearings.After studying in California, I worked atFYH USA in Illinois and visited the SealMaster factory in Aurora. That was late1980’s and before they closed the factoryover there. I had the meeting with theirmanufacturing manager Mr. French andhe brought the very first FYH catalogfrom his book shelf. He said, “your fathercopied your designs from us and nowwe are asking you to produce parts forus.” and laughed. The OEM businesswas running only for a couple of yearsbecause of the Anti-Dumping Duty againstJapanese bearings started at those times.Since then, I traveled around the world topromote FYH and built one of the largestbearing factories in China exclusively formounted ball bearing units. I also workedwith other manufactures like KOYO(JTEKT) and TIMKEN for many years.“COC is short for Cross Ocean Company,it may not sound like a bearingmanufacturer, some people thinkthat it sounds like a surf shop.FYH is a family-owned company and theboard members were my relatives. I oftenhad disagreements with them about theway to do business. I cared very muchabout every detail of the product and wasalways looking for the new designs. Theother board members didn’t like the ideaof spending money to change the designsbecause they said the distributors havenever asked for it. My feeling was that wewere the experts on mounted bearing unitsand should always be pushing to makea better product that would last longer.My focus was to produce the best for thecustomers although some distributorsmight not like the products getting a longerlife, so they could sell more bearings. Iwas the youngest board member and thepresident of both FYH and FYH USA atthat time. However, I grew tired of thearguments and decided to leave FYH.My other love is surfing. I surfed everyday when I was young. I traveled manyplaces around the world to surf. Iusually carried three to four surfboardsdepending on the destination. The onlyproblem was the board bag to travel. Thepadded board bags at that time didn’tfit correctly and they were hard to carry.So, I invented the new board bag whichwas expandable to be able to change thelength of the bag to fit the different sizesof the surfboards. It was made with thecombination of plastic hard shells andpadded covers to protect the surfboardsperfectly. I had often gotten dings onmy surfboards traveling by airplane. Mysurfboard bag design had two wheels atthe end of the bag and I could carry theheavy bag easily. I made the prototype andall my surfing friends liked it very much.The plastic hard shell needed a mold tomake it and I made 50 pieces of them tocover the cost of the mold. I founded thecompany to sell my own design surfboardbags. That company was Cross Ocean Inc.founded in 2001. The company was justan online web shop and suspended thecompany operations when the last bagwas sold, since I was too busy with FYH.“For sphericalroller bearings, itis important thatthe seal lips keepthe same pressureduring shaftmisalignments,otherwise theoutside air canfind its' way intothe inside of thebearing easily.“Can you tell us more about yourbackground and history of COC Inc.?When I left FYH in 2018, I rememberedmy suspended Cross Ocean Inc. company.However, I wanted to continue to innovatebearing units rather than surfboard bags.I thought Cross Ocean Inc. doesn’t soundlike the name of a bearing company, andI changed the company name to COC Inc.I still wanted to keep my sea turtle logofrom Cross Ocean which referred to thestrong board bags, similar as the seaturtles crossing oceans to surf the wavesaround the world. I felt same way for mybearings. I want our bearings from Japanlast long life like sea turtles and cross theoceans for the customers in the world.So I thought this logo was also perfectfor my new bearing company. COC logowith flipped C inside turtle representsconnecting people around the world.Thankfully I have many connections tofactories in China and they offered tohelp my project and allow COC to be afabless company. They are high qualitycompanies and I can see a big differencein quality from 20 years ago. I foundedCOC in September 2018 and we shippedour first order in October 2019, whichwas amazingly quick. It took only ayear to figure out our design, producesamples, undergo extensive testingand figure out packaging. I appreciateall their passion for our products.Bearing News69

Eiichi Kobayashi,CEO/Founder of COC INC.

So, what were the projects youcouldn’t finish at FYH?There were two main projects I couldnot finish. The first was the sphericalroller bearing units. I wanted to changethe classic two-piece plummer blockunits to an one piece unitized unit. Iinvented the unitized SRB units with ZLock at FYH but they were not compatibleenough with SN plummer block units.Another project was stainless ballbearing units for the food market. I hadredesigned that series at FYH but theywere not near completion when I left.““Adapters requirefeeler gauges tocheck the clearanceinside the bearings,so I inventedCROSSLOC locking system forour SRB units.What do you concern most to designthe bearing units?I have been working on the sealingand locking for mounted bearing unitsfor many years. Contamination andinstallation are main reasons the L10life of bearing are reduced. Increasingthe number of seal lips could make forbetter protection, but the torque duringrotation gets higher at the same time.The higher torque makes the temperatureinside the bearings higher, and the airpressure inside of the bearing gets lowerand if any point is not properly sealed, theoutside air finds its way into the insideof the bearing pulling in contaminants. Iam always concerned about the designsof the seal lips to keep the torque lowerwhile providing maximum protection. Forspherical roller bearings, it is importantthat the seal lips keep the same pressureduring shaft misalignments, otherwisethe outside air can find its' way intothe inside of the bearing easily.How’s about the installation?I personally think that adapters are thebest locking system. Adapters hold theshaft from 360 degrees concentricallythrough the length of the adapter sleeve.Adapters eliminate the vibrations andare good for high-speed applications aswell. The only problem with adapters isthey are difficult to install and uninstall.Adapters require feeler gauges to checkthe clearance inside the bearings, so Iinvented CROSSLOC locking system forour SRB units. CROSSLOC is so simpleand easy that even a 10-year-old caninstall and uninstall the units. We use thestandard adapter sleeve for this lockingsystem and this is why our unitizedSRB units are 100% compatible withstandard SN plummer block units. Ourcompetitors use a one size smaller insertfor their unitized plummer blocks. Theiradapter mount inserts are compatible withsetscrew locking inserts. The standard22200K inserts used in the SN plummerblock are one size bigger than straightbore inserts to accommodate the adapter.Since the insert being used is smaller,the load rating of their units is less thanthe traditional SN plummer block.Bearing News71

So your CROSSLOC bearings are notcompatible with setscrew lock inserts?CROSSLOC CX inserts are notcompatible. But we just added a new linecalled CROSSLOC CXC which is thecylindrical bore (setscrew straight boreinsert) equivalent. We use our originalthinner wall, lower angle tapered sleevefor CROSSLOC CXC to match with thebore sizes of our CS setscrew lock inserts.““We designed a newlocking systemcalled OCCLOC .So is CROSSLOC available for allhousing styles now?Yes, and the SAF plummer block versionis available as well now. I love these newhousings. All sizes of both CXC and SAFunits will be available by this summer.That’s great. Please tell us about yourstainless-steel ball bearing units now.Our stainless-steel series is calledSaniline. I have been studying the solidpolymer lubricant for food applications.However, it costs more and I’m not sureabout the recycling of those materials.I designed a new seal and flinger to getthe IP69K certification, which is thehighest rating of the protection againstthe ingress of dust and water. Sanilineinserts are lubricated for life and there isno grease fitting on the housings anymore.We don’t need to worry about peopleover greasing during maintenance liketraditional stainless-steel units whichcan breed bacteria. We have added thestand-off housings to this lineup thatis a half inch off from the mounting72Bearing Newssurface. The stand-off units are good forwash down clean-in-place applicationsto meet HACCP/HARPC requirements.We designed a new locking system calledOCCLOC . This idea came from an old MBCentric-Lok design. I still have their ERinsert somewhere in my bearing collection.The inner ring has 8 slots compared toCentric-Lok’s 4 slots. We have testeddesigns using from 2 slots to 8 slots to findthe best holding power. Two setscrews arelocated 120 apart on the locking collar andthe locking collar pulls the far side of innerring during tightening of the setscrews.The solution is that the shaft can remainvery clean without any damage from thebearings. The Skwezloc locking styleuses a thicker collar for the cap screwto tighten properly. The OCCLOC cansave the cost of the expensive stainlessmaterial by using a thinner collar.We don’t use plastic materials at allto help protecting the environment.The plastic housings are a good costsavings for some applications, but whenthey get scratched, they can becomeentrapment points for bacteria. We alsohave a stainless-steel safety cover forthese units. There is no machining forthis cover on the housing. Just twist thecover to lock. It’s very easy to install anduninstall for cleaning. You can check ourwebsite crossocean.com for the details.