Dr. Jürgen M. Geißinger, Schaeffler Group President and CEO, was elected new president of the World Bearing Association (WBA) at the organization’s fourth annual meeting in Tokyo. WBA was established as an umbrella organization of the American Bearing Manufacturers’ Association (ABMA), the Japan Bearing Industrial Association (JBIA) and the European Bearing Manufacturers’ Association (FEBMA) in September 2006. It represents the leading global bearing companies with sales of approximately #8364;20 billion, which is about 75 percent of the rolling bearing market worldwide.
World trade, environmental protection and product piracy in focus
The WBA represents the interests of the bearing industry where initiatives of individual companies have proved to be insufficient. WBA objectives include the elimination of competition distorting trade restraints as well as the introduction of uniform environmental protection standards. Special focus is on the fight against product piracy. “Counterfeiting earns large sums of money and causes immense economic damage,” explained Dr. Geißinger. The bearing industry too is not immune to this and reports losses of several hundreds of millions of euros. But beyond this economic damage, counterfeit bearings are a considerable safety risk for consumers. This situation has deteriorated during the past years, since the counterfeiters copy not only simple products, but also technologically demanding bearings that are, for instance, used in aircraft engines or high-speed trains. “WBA will therefore further reinforce its initiatives – this means intensified information and clarification of facts for customers on one hand and uncompromising prosecution of offenders on the other,” said Dr. Geißinger.
Rolling bearings are among the most important machinery components. They are used wherever things are in motion, whether in fans and drills or in wind turbines, rocket propulsion and cars. With over 225,000 bearing products, delivered to some 40,000 customers from more than 60 different industrial sectors, the Schaeffler Group is the industry’s No 2 worldwide. Its portfolio includes standardized catalog products as well as customized solutions, spare parts and services. Within that port-folio, sizes range from miniature bearings with diameters of just a few millimeters, used for example in dental drills, to the large bearings at the other end of the scale, having outside diameters of several meters, needed for example in wind turbines.
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