PRODUCTS
Wheel Hubs
Hub bearings support the weight of the vehicle and allow the tires to turn smoothly. They are extremely important as they have a major impact on safety, as well as ride comfort and fuel efficiency. As the world leader in OEM wheel hub assembly market share, NTN is dedicated to developing bearings in an aim to support the ever changing needs of the OEM’s.
Wheel Hub Assemblies
Preferred by OEMs Worldwide
GLOBAL LEADER, LOCAL PRODUCTION
NTN satisfies more than 30% of the demand for North American OE vehicle production from NTN’s Elgin, Illinois plant. The Elgin plant is the largest manufacturer of hub assemblies in North America, providing more product to OEMs and the Aftermarket than any other single facility. This gives NTN the benefit in the Aftermarket of supplying highly-engineered replacement parts that meet or exceed OE engineering specifications.
THE DIFFERENT GENERATIONS
NTN has developed different types of bearings for car manufacturers, depending on the vehicle and the performance requirements. We speak about a generation of bearings, currently called “GEN”.
AUTOMOTIVE AFTERMARKET
In addition to our OE heritage, NTN also offers a line of OE-quality wheel hubs to the automotive aftermarket under the BCA Bearings product line. Learn more about BCA Bearings here BCABearings.com.
Gen 1
The first applications used single row bearings, mounted in pairs. Compared to this type of conventional bearing arrangement, NTN GEN 1 wheel bearings incorporates 2 rows of rolling elements which require no setting (no pre-loading or alignment).
The advantages of GEN.1: compact, better reliability and simpler mounting process. It is one of the most used wheel bearings.
Gen 2
To meet the need for greater simplicity and reduce weight, expected by manufacturers, NTN offers a range of bearings where the inner and outer rings incorporate additional mounting functions: clamps, flanges or mounting holes for easy mounting onto the chassis of the vehicle.
The advantages of GEN.2: reduction in the number of parts, improved rigidity, increase in accuracy and better adaptation to the operating conditions.
Gen 2.5
An incremental evolution of the Gen 2 wheel hub assembly, NTN’s Gen 2.5 hub assemblies offer all of the benefits of the Gen 2 hubs, but are designed for inner ring rotation with a hub spindle installed. Engineered for driven and non-driven wheel applications, the Gen 2.5 can feature either a pressed in or roll-formed assembly.
In addition to the advantage of a Gen 2 hub assembly, the roll-formed versions of the Gen 2.5 have a factory set pre-load which adds to the ease and reliability of installation.
Gen 3
3rd generation bearings incorporate two mounting functions: attachment to the chassis and the fixing to the disc brake and the rim of the wheel by the flanges incorporated into the inner and outer rings.
In addition, the integration of the bearing in the vehicle can also provide a transmission function in the case of a driven wheel (drive provided via the spline in the bore).
The advantages of GEN.3: easy to mount due to the factory set preload.
FOCUS ON RELATED APPLICATIONS
NTN products are critical to keep the world moving smoothly. Our bearings and related products are present in a wide variety of industries. Please see the industries below that have applications for this product category.
You may also be interested in these related resources.
NTN Automotive Products Guidebook
Learn More
NTN Hub Bearings
Learn More
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BEARING FINDER
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