Quality in Materials

Timken is uniquely positioned to control its raw materials. With more than 85 years of steel-making expertise, we manufacture 75 percent of the steel used in our bearings. Bearing-quality steel is our specialty, and we have the resources in place to make the cleanest steel in the world. Cleaner steel means fewer inclusions, and that means better bearing performance in customer applications.

The balance of our bearing steels come from Timken-qualified sources. To become a supplier to Timken of steel or other manufacturing materials, a company must undergo our Supplier Quality Assurance Audit. We provide tight steel-making specifications to these suppliers and require samples for testing. Our research scientists then conduct metallurgical and ultrasonic testing on both the raw steel and the finished bearings to verify that the material meets our Corporate Metallurgical Specifications for metallurgical properties including cleanness, hardness and case depth.

We conduct testing weekly of both our own steel and purchased steel. We also evaluate our outside suppliers to ensure that their operations have both the capacity and the quality system in place to meet our needs.