The market for bearings and similar components like bushing and shock absorbers is multi-faceted.

On one hand, a variety of non-specialized, high-volume applications demand extremely cheap solutions. These components can be as simple as furniture drawers slides. In this context, bearings are often treated like a commodity: cheap, plentiful, and interchangeable.

For manufacturers that focus on this bulk production bearings market, volume matters. For the largest bearings manufacturers, the ideal client will purchase huge quantities, even millions, of bearings per year. But while this style of production makes sense in support of some applications, we find that it hasn’t always served TriStar’s customers well.

Smaller manufacturers and high-tech firms with specialized, high-performance bearings needs often don’t receive adequate attention from bulk manufacturers chasing accounts at some of the biggest companies on earth. Yet smaller companies, often in the sub-contractor role, are often doing the heavy-lifting when it comes to design and component selection.

Bearings are expected to thrive in a huge variety of specialized conditions that are anything but interchangeable. And they have vital implications for a design’s performance, reliability, service life, and maintenance needs. Businesses of different sizes and industries feature crucial applications where bearings aren’t a commodity, but a vital, precisely engineered component.

TriStar takes pride in bringing our full engineering expertise to bear on each and every client account. 

A Prototype to Production Partnership for Customers of All Sizes

TriStar retains the ability to engage with each client’s application as a real engineering challenge. We’re not just selling bearings, but using bearings to solve problems our clients didn’t know they had. We work directly with client engineers to understand specifically how our products will be used, where they’ll be expected to thrive, and how they can help promote superior performance and reliability. From extensive consulting on material selection to 24/7 support, we center our service model on customer success from prototyping to production.

Our business is built on finding the right bearing for every possible client application, and you’ll never struggle with a service issue or order too small to get our attention. From working with niche agriculture equipment manufacturers to developing specialized membranes for medical applications, we’re always working to find new problems to solve with our materials. Which is why you’ll find our products everywhere from underwater to high-altitude. We’re still finding exciting new applications for our low-friction, self-lubricating materials every day.

If you’re interested in learning more about taking advantage of our advanced, customizable materials (and working with a bearing provider that always picks up the phone) you can get in touch with our experts using the button below.