Orbit Bearings onto a New Growth Phase
Orbit will be opening its new factory early next year as a part of its ambitious growth strategy.

The bearings segment in India has come a long way in the last decade showing rapid growth in terms of volumes and quality standards amidst growing competition. While the task of battling competition and coming out on top in the domestic market is a great challenge in itself, a handful of home-grown bearing manufacturers have gone out and established their strong presence in global markets despite several odds. One of them is the Rajkot-based Orbit Bearings India which is growing fast both in India and overseas, nearly tripling its capacity in the process.

The new facility, combined with the existing one, will nearly triple the company?s manufacturing capacity. Orbit is expanding its capacity with its second plant which is coming up close to existing facility at Rajkot. From around 350,000 units as monthly capacity, Orbit will now be able to produce a million units per month through the two plants. Orbit has a manufacturing facility with state-of-the-art technology at Rajkot. Despite the prolonged slowdown in the industry, Orbit has been able to maintain consistent growth over the last decade. Throughout the last 10 years, except during the recession in 2008-09, Orbit has grown by around 30 per cent year-on-year. With the construction segment gaining momentum, Orbit is ready to enter a new growth phase of its own.

With 98 per cent of its sales coming from the OEM segment, the company attributes its success in global markets to factors such as hard work, focus on quality and understanding of customer needs. While Orbit?s commitment to consistent quality, from design to distribution, has been one of its core strengths, optimising manufacturing processes and resources has been another. Currently the fourth largest in India in the product lines it competes in, Orbit has invested in an R&D facility to perform simulation testing for its automotive customers and friction management processes to improve fuel efficiency. The company?s aggressive investments into research, development, quality control procedures and plant infrastructure have been instrumental in enabling it to provide strong and reliable support services to its global construction equipment OEM customers.

Bearings for CE sector
Construction equipment used in harsh environments risk contamination from dust, mud, and huge loads, and require a certain degree of ruggedness that is different from the requirements of a common passenger vehicle. The operating environments of construction industries for bearings are extremely severe. Orbit has developed bearings for such equipment. These bearings provide long life and higher limiting speeds exceeding that of conventional bearings. Orbit?s diverse product line supports building-equipment repair needs with high-quality bearing products that include tapered roller bearings and cylindrical roller bearings. Orbit fuses the very latest bearing design technologies with its core technologies for materials, lubrication, and analysis. As a result, Orbit is able to supply its customers with bearing solutions that offer both long life and high reliability. In this way Orbit contributes to increased productivity and lower maintenance costs, while maintaining a sustainable and environmentally friendly operation in a rigorous construction environment.

Orbit Bearings, established in 1990 in Rajkot, manufactures taper and cylindrical roller bearings for automotive and industrial applications, catering to manufacturers of trucks, truck trailers, construction equipment, agriculture tractors, transmissions, engines, compressors, industrial gearboxes, etc. The company earns 60 per cent of its revenue from the domestic market, with the rest from exports.