Global Plain Bearing Market - 2022-2029

Global Plain Bearing Market - 2022-2029

Market Overview

The global plain bearing market reached US$ XX million in 2021 and is expected to reach US$ XX million by 2029, growing at a CAGR of XX% during the forecast period 2022-2029.

Plain bearings are mechanical parts responsible for managing the load and various types of motion between two separate units within a machine. The primary reason behind the employment of plain bearings is to avoid wear and tear to structures and components within the device.

A plain bearing is generally composed of two separate parts, namely support and bush. While the support is the fixed part that bears the load, the bush keeps the moving elements together. Plain bearings are utilized in several industries, such as construction equipment, forklifts, solar power equipment and even farm and forestry machinery, to prevent misalignments and oscillating movements reliably and cost-effectively.

Market Dynamics

The higher resistance and low maintenance of plain bearings propel the respective market’s colossal growth. Nonetheless, the comparably higher price point concerning substitutes restricts the respective market’s growth.

Low maintainance requirement and high performance

Plain bearings are an essential component of modern pieces of machinery employed in various industries, including but not limited to industrial manufacture, automotive, farm and agriculture, among others. The primary application of plain bearing in every sector is to maintain the proper alignment of machine parts to ensure optimal working without any wear and tear to the respective machine parts due to friction or similar factors.

Though there are several types of bearing currently available in the market, such as rolling ones, plain bearings offer substantially higher performance and downtime due to maintainance compared to their counterparts. The higher performance and low maintainance of plain bearings could be traced to two factors: their better sensitivity to moisture and resistance to noise and vibrations. Another significant advantage of plain bearings is their lower force requirement, which allows them to offer efficient cycling, interchangeability and lighter weight.

Due to the aforementioned factors, the maintainance requirements of the plain bearing are significantly less than their counterparts. As a result, the demand for the respective products in several industries is skyrocketing, boosting the demand and production in the global plain bearing market. As a result, the low maintenance requirement and high performance offered by plain bearing could be considered the number one factor that promotes the respective market’s evolution and phenomenal growth.

The comparably higher price point

Though plain bearings are significantly cheap when compared to their market counterparts, such as rolling bearings, the product could still be considered pricey. Irrespective of the fact that the plain approach has better dampening properties and is significantly more readily available in the market, from a machine manufacturer's perspective, minimizing the price of the machine is a significant need. Since implementing market alternatives could reduce the final machinery prices compared to plain bearings, the chances that several manufacturers opt for alternatives are significantly high.

Though many major manufacturers consider minor price variation insignificant to the significant performance boost, the chances that new entrants and small-scale manufacturers to let go of the costing are enough to introduce a minor dent to the overall performance of the respective market. As a result, cheaper alternatives' comparatively higher prices and presence could be recognized as a primary market restraint.

COVID-19 Impact Analysis

The pandemic COVID-19 had a minor impact on the plain bearing market. Plain bearings offer much promise in the automotive, aerospace, energy and construction industries. COVID-19 had a more significant influence on the market for more oversized bearings and a lesser impact on the market for more miniature bearings, owing to delayed production and sales in discrete industries such as cement, mining and others to global lockdowns. The impact of the pandemic on the respective market could be seen in three main areas:

The availability of raw materials and final product sales have been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic's lockdowns and government controls.

Second, the production of plain bearing necessitates several manufacturing processes, which have been significantly hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic's lockdowns and government controls. As a result, most plain bearing production plants have closed or are working at a reduced capacity.

The overall drop in end-user activities lowered demand for plain bearing, causing demand-supply dynamics to shift. For instance, COVID-19 has the most significant impact on the aircraft industry. Airliners were significantly disrupted by the suspension of air travel across several regions owing to the COVID-19 epidemic. The mass grounding of aircraft fleets and a lack of new significant purchase orders and deliveries have had an impact on aircraft OEMs' companies.

However, the expected growth in end-use segments such as automotive, aerospace and construction, among others, is expected to resurrect the market prospects of the respective market since plain bearings offer high performance, minimal downtime and extreme performance to machines employed in the above markets.

Segment Analysis

The global plain bearing market is classified based on product, end-user and region.

Growing automation of industries for numerous production processes

Recently, the industrial sector has been witnessing enormous growth as industrial development plays a crucial role in the economic uplift of countries. It is a historical truth that countries with a robust industrial sector have experienced more remarkable economic growth and development. The industrial sector has improved national income and raised the population's living standards worldwide. Industrial development is critical to economic growth as it increases people's productive capability and creates an expanding number of job chances. As a result, people can have more goods and services, such as leisure and better health and lessens reliance on agricultural exports to generate much-needed foreign exchange.

Plain bearings are highly versatile and capable of multidimensional movements, heavy movements and preventing misalignments and can act as a cost-effective solution against manufacturing tolerances to welded assemblies. Due to its extensive properties and availability in a wide range of metals such as bronze, brass, ceramics and aluminum, the plain bearings are widely employed in the industrial sector. The growing industrialization, coupled with the essentiality of plain bearings in the respective segment, allows the industrial sector to dominate the end-user segment of the global plain bearing market.

Geographical Analysis

Availability of low-cost manufacturing, labor and raw materials

Asia-Pacific is the world's manufacturing hub due to the availability of cheap labor and raw materials. Further, the region also offers excellent connectivity across various parts of the world, enabling transportation of manufactured materials to be convenient and cost-effective. As a result, all the first-world or developed countries are establishing their manufacturing base in Asia-Pacific.

Further, the region's population is extensive and grows along with the living standard and available disposable income. As a result of the factors mentioned above, various industries such as automotive, construction and aerospace are witnessing a significant boom in the region. Since plain bearings are an essential component of any well-functioning machinery, the growing manufacturing process and development of varied industries allow Asia-Pacific to dominate the regional segment of the market.

Competitive Landscape

The global plain bearing market is less dynamic in terms of the number and strength of international and local producers. Because of the limited number of manufacturers, such as Altra Industrial Motion Global Plain Bearing Market Corp, GGB, igus, Minebea Intec GmbH, NSK Ltd, NTN Corporation, PBC Linear, RBC Bearings Incorporated, SKF Group and SGL Group, the market is classified as consolidated. To achieve competitive advantages and recognition in their particular markets, significant market stakeholders use market techniques such as mergers, acquisitions, product launches, contributions and collaborations.

For instance, on March 04, 2021, SKF Group is spending US$40 million in Airasca, Italy, to expand and modernize its production facilities. Through a considerable new-build extension, the investment will bring the manufacturing of super-precision bearings (SuPBs) for industrial applications to the Group's most prominent manufacturing location in Italy. Thanks to investments in automated manufacturing processes, the Group's Northern Italy manufacturing sites will be consolidated, affecting two other factories. The factory in Villar Perosa will continue to focus on the manufacture of bearings for the railway and aerospace applications, while super-precision bearing production will be shifted to Airasca.

Similarly, on October 14, 2021, KISSsoft and SKF joined forces to design the shaft module in KISSsoft Release 2021, allowing bearing calculations based on ISO/TS 16281 via the SKF Cloud service. As a result, the users have access to detailed bearing internal geometry that would otherwise be unavailable. The results, including the stiffness matrix and service life numbers, can be exported to KISSsoft.

The respective fact implies that a KISSsoft user is always up to date with bearing calculation and simulation technologies, boosting confidence in predicting bearing performance. Furthermore, utilizing the updated data collected from the SKF Cloud, a more precise computation of the shaft deflection may be performed.

NTN Corporation

Overview: NTN is a precision machinery manufacturer that focuses on the research, development, manufacture and sales of bearings and driveshafts. Bearings, employed in a variety of machinery, including vehicles, wind turbines, rolling stock and medical machinery, are among the company's primary products.

The NTN Group has 207 locations in 34 different countries, including 117 sales bases, 70 production bases, 15 R&D bases and five other bases that employ more than 20,000 employees worldwide.

Product Portfolio:

NTN Spherical plain Bearings: Equipment with articulated movements, such as oscillating or aligning motions, uses plain spherical bearings. NTN spherical plain bearings are divided into self-lubricating with a solid PTFE-based liner and lubricating with metal-to-metal contact between the inner and outer rings.

Key Development:

On April 21, 2021, NTN Corporation launched a Creepless Plain Bearing that prevents creeping by cutting the outer diameter of the bearing's outer ring with a patented undercut.

Why Purchase the Report?

To visualize the global plain bearing market segmentation based on product, end-user and region and understand key commercial assets and players.

Identify commercial opportunities in the global plain bearing market by analyzing trends and co-development.

Excel data sheet with numerous data points of plain bearing market-level with four segments.

PDF report consisting of cogently put together market analysis after exhaustive qualitative interviews and in-depth market study.

Product mapping available as excel consists of key products of all the major market players

The global plain bearing market report would provide approximately 56 tables, 56 figures and almost 175 pages.

Target Audience 2023

Manufacturers/ Buyers

Industry Investors/Investment Bankers

Research Professionals

Emerging Companies