When a bearing fails, it often points an accusing finger at the source of its demise. If you know how to read the signs.

After a day long training at IBT in April, some 20 IBT sales and customer service representatives are much more knowledgeable at doing post-bearing-mortem analyses.

Koyo engineers and sales specialists – with their shiny new Koyo Training Vehicle (KTV) – spent the day teaching the ins and outs of bearings, with an emphasis on failure analysis. It was a long day, but an informative one, and included significant hands-on learning.

“At IBT, we take pride in teaching our people about bearings: how to select, prescribe, install, maintain and remove. Our collective level of knowledge and expertise is quite high,” Bearing Business Group Director Tim Zerger observes.

“But what Koyo taught us in the workshop was an important series of lessons. By looking at a bearing that is ready for replacement, we can now make an accurate diagnosis of what went wrong – and prevent a recurrence of the same problems in the future.”

Part of the training involved Koyo’s new Training Manual, a 126 page document that contains ten sections. Content includes: basics; materials and manufacturing; bearing selection; tolerances; storage, handling and cleaning; mounting and removal; lubrication; failure analysis; and troubleshooting. The manual also includes a Glossary that provides definitions for more than 80 bearing-related terms.

Joe Pascarelli, a Product Specialist at IBT found the day interesting, enjoyable and informative.

“I have more than fifteen years in this business,” Pascarelli said. “But, you can always learn more about the products we work with. Koyo talked about bearings and wind power – a hot topic in today’s world. They also reported on world-wide problems with counterfeit bearings – and that was also a real eye-opener.

“And, of course, the process gave me even greater understanding and respect for Koyo – and the size and scope of their international foot print. I was not fully aware that they were part of the Toyota group, through JTEKT Group.”

John Miller, a Koyo sales rep working with IBT made arrangements for the sessions.

“For IBT, we created a special compressed and enriched training session. The material we showcased usually takes several days. However, since we were dealing with trained IBT people, we were able to go faster and get more in. From what I saw and heard on the day and since the training, the group enjoyed the experience – and learned a great deal.”

For more information about Koyo, contact IBT.