Hi Steven,
In a former life in the Aerospace industry, I was responsible for bearing procurements for our company and have toured the SKF factory in Italy as well as the FAG works in Schweinfurt, Germany. Both companies were very high volume production facilities for automotive, and it may be possible that low volume bearings for Campy may be produced there. (Aerospace applications are also low volume, but during my factory tours, I never saw any Campagnolo work orders). That doesn't mean they are not produced at SKF in Italy...
I believe that many of the bearing companies also purchased the balls from other suppliers, and/or from a sister subsidiary. Matching sizes of balls prior to assembly is a common practice.
There are multiple bearing companies in Western and Eastern Europe, as well as in Asia and US. Unless restricted by law or customer requirement, companies like SKF may produce same part number bearings in multiple facilities and locations. Most bearing assemblies, at least the high-end bearings, will be marked with a code to identify lot, date produced and/or factory location.
Cheers,
John Lehoczky
Kansas City
> Greg,
>
> SKF has long had a factory in Italy, just outside of
> Turin, that mainly
> produces bearings for the auto trade, but on good
> authority (a friend who
> does Swedish/English/Italian translations), they
> also produce for the
> bicycle trade. I take that means Campagnolo. SKF
> also has other factories
> throughout the world and I seriously doubt that
> Campagnolo received supply
> from the Swedish factory.
>
> > I've said this before, but Campy's bearings were
> so good because they came
> > from Sweden!! (Also, they spec'ed 'em tight,
> tight, tight...).
> >
> > I think Tullio spec'ed SKF bearings very early on
> in his career . I have
> an
> > early Pista headset which has a navy blue box with
> an SKF logo on it -
> that's
> > how proud he was of his choice of bearing
> supplier. They were undoubtably
> the
> > most expensive available at the time, but guess
> what? They were the best!
> > Back then, they were probably without peer in
> terms of surface hardness,
> > roundness, general uniformity, and surface finish.
> >
>
> The last time that I was in Campagnolo (about 5
> years ago), Valentino had
> very little true power in the company. It would seem
> that he was in fact in
> a bit of a power struggle with the adminstrators in
> charge of his mother's
> share of the company. Hopefully, this has since
> cleared up as he seemed to
> have a good head on his shoulders.
>
> > Today, there are manufacturers that are roughly
> equal to SKF in quality
> (FAG,
> > NTN, NSK, to name a few). I would guess that
> Valentino has changed where
> he
> > buys bearings to reduce cost. Anyone know for
> sure?
>
>
> Steven Maasland
> Moorestown, NJ
>
>
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