Case Study: NSK gives Lonestar Racing a competitive edge
Problem: Under the punishing conditions of ATV racing, Lonestar was experiencing bearing failures with “other” brand bearings in their TRX450 rear axle bearing housing. The concern was that there was not enough reliability to make it through practice on Saturday and the race on Sunday. The last thing you want to do is lose a race over failed axle bearings, so the bearings were normally changed out on Saturday night. Lonestar knew there had to be a better way.
Solution: NSK took a look at the assembly and realized that we made a product with the same dimensions as the “other” guys. The similarities ended there. Lonestar provided temperature data taken under competition conditions. So we specified high temp double lipped seals, high temp synthetic grease and other special bearing components, all in a greased-for-life package, and told Lonestar to leave off the grease fitting. Then we optimized the press fit conditions and the team at Lonestar quickly machined prototype bearing housings at their Phoenix, AZ manufacturing facility. The NSK bearings were installed and away we went.
Result: Instantly the failures disappeared and not only were the NSK bearings running all weekend, they were running multiple race weekends with no failures. Proof positive that it’s all in the details...
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