Schaeffler Celebrates 500 Millionth Needle Roller Bearing for Tripod Joint in China Taicang

Schaeffler has once again achieved its "hundred-million-unit" milestone! Recently, Schaeffler's Taicang Plant 4, located in the Taicang High-tech Zone, witnessed an exciting moment—the 500 millionth universal joint needle roller bearing rolled off the production line in China. This not only marks another significant mass production breakthrough for Schaeffler in the drive steering field but also fully demonstrates the remarkable achievements of the Taicang High-tech Zone in the clustering and innovative development of the automotive core component industry.

Universal joints are flexible "joint" components that enable variable-angle power transmission and are widely used in automotive steering and transmission systems. Universal joint bearings act like "cartilage" filling the space, responsible for reducing friction and bearing loads.

According to reports, Schaeffler universal joint needle roller bearings possess characteristics such as high torque, low friction, excellent robustness, and torsional stiffness. Through the selection of high-strength raw materials, innovative product design, advanced heat treatment, and high-precision stamping processes, excellent performance and production stability are ensured. Furthermore, Schaeffler can provide comprehensive technical solutions based on specific customer needs, winning market acclaim with its "product + service" approach.

Facing ever-evolving market demands, Schaeffler leverages the R&D and manufacturing capabilities of its Taicang base to continuously iterate and upgrade its product design and production processes. To meet customers' requirements for high strength and low friction, Schaeffler employs a special bottom structure design, reducing edge stress while enhancing bottom performance, thereby improving the bearing's dynamic compressive strength by 200%. Furthermore, innovative heat treatment processes also enhance bearing performance, effectively preventing raceway spalling or bearing failure.

Simultaneously, Schaeffler is driving intelligent transformation and digitalization of its production lines. By improving the pitch and arrangement of stamping dies, material utilization has increased by an average of 6%, and production speed has increased by 24%, reaching industry-leading levels and achieving the dual goals of cost reduction and efficiency improvement. This multi-faceted evolution in R&D, production, application, and processes has enabled Schaeffler universal joint bearings to stand out in the fierce market competition, resulting in rapid business and production growth.

Currently, with Taicang High-tech Zone's forward-looking layout of future industrial tracks, Schaeffler is also actively expanding the application areas and scenarios of universal joint bearings. With technological advancements, in addition to existing mature applications in passenger cars, commercial vehicles, railways, and ships, their high performance and reliability are making them key components for emerging industries such as humanoid intelligence and the low-altitude economy. For example, in humanoid robots, universal joint bearings can significantly improve the flexibility of the robot's neck and hands, achieving greater degrees of freedom of movement, or performing miniaturized and precise joint movements.

The automotive core components industry has grown into a key advantageous industry for Taicang High-tech Zone. Suppliers for 70% of the core components of a complete vehicle can be found here, boasting a strong foundation of cooperation with German companies and a complete industrial chain. The zone focuses on key links in the industrial chain, such as the "three electrics" of new energy vehicles, autonomous driving systems, and automotive electronics.

Next, Taicang High-tech Zone will continue to focus its efforts on strengthening, supplementing, and extending the core component industry chain for new energy vehicles. It will focus on the development direction of electrification, lightweighting, and connectivity in the automotive industry, refining and strengthening specific sub-sectors, continuously improving the industrial model of "one road gathering one industrial chain," and accelerating industrial upgrading in terms of industrial synergy, regional synergy, and innovation ecosystem, striving to expand the industrial "foundation."