Super Precision Bearings and Bearing Products Timken Super ...

QUALITY YOU CAN BUILD ON
In 1936, an ingenious New England inventor
produced a tiny ball bearing to replace a jewel
in a family heirloom. Winslow Pierce not only
repaired his father’s watch, he founded an entire
industry. His industry made possible
instrumentation that travels millions of miles into
space and settles softly and accurately on a distant
planet; dental handpieces that operate painlessly at
half a million revolutions per minute; aircraft that
navigate precisely through darkness and adverse
weather. Literally hundreds of various devices
employ the millions of ball bearings produced
every year.
Some three years after his invention, Winslow Pierce led a
group who founded Miniature Precision Bearings, Inc. In
1941 the group established their headquarters in Keene,
New Hampshire and the industry was born.
The fledgling company began to prosper, stimulated by
instrumentation requirements for World War II aircraft.
Most notable among those instruments was the Norden
bomb sight, credited by many as one of the major
technological developments of that era and one that greatly
enhanced the effectiveness of the U.S. Army Air Corps.
During and after World War II, Miniature Precision Bearings
pioneered the effort to produce precision ball bearings on a
mass production basis while maintaining a high standard of
Plant II Keene, NH. 56,000 sq ft.: Gyro and Rotary Assemblies
Plant I Keene, NH. 130,000 sq ft.: Bearing Operations
quality. This ingenuity and dedication produced many
innovations in miniature and instrument ball bearings:
• First integrally flanged bearings.
• First shielded bearing.
• First thrust and pivot bearings.
• First molded retainers.
• First modular cartridge assemblies.
• First full complement bearing.
• Extended inner ring bearing.
• First angular contact bearing.
• First integral assemblies.
• First manufacturing plant devoted to production
of miniature bearings.
Today, Timken Super Precision is a wholly
owned subsidiary of the Timken Company.
This relationship further strengthens our
abilities to fulfill application requirements with
quality products, produced in the most efficient
manner possible.