Sintered Bearings for Automobile Parts
Total cost reduction achieved through materials development and shape optimization proposals focusing on necessary properties
- Challenges faced by customers
- Customers face the following three key issues regarding sintered bearings for automobiles: (1) Cost reduction, (2) Quality stabilization, and (3) New material development.
All three of these issues are things that are not complete once a product is created. As automobiles and price competition continue to evolve, it is necessary to continue quality improvement and cost reduction. Our role is to continually work to solve these issues to satisfy the requirements of our customers.
Solutions
Since its foundation, Mitsubishi Materials Trading has been involved in automobile parts and been familiar with automobile design and production processes and the performance and quality necessary to produce automobile parts, etc. We leverage our highly professional organization and technological abilities to propose diverse solutions.
Shape Proposals
We will go back to the parts assembly method, consider improvement measures, and propose the optimum shape.
Materials Proposals
By creating new materials that better meet your needs, you can stabilize quality and reduce costs. We also use powder metallurgy materials to create materials that have properties that cannot be alloyed with molten materials. You can also reduce costs without compromising quality by using custom-made materials only when needed for bearing applications, and then using cheaper materials for the rest.
Lubricant Proposals
We also develop and propose specific lubricants dedicated to the customer's specific application.
Delivery & Service Proposals
We also have plants in Southeast Asia capable of supporting customers in foreign countries. Reducing the number of times deliveries must clear customs to meet each customer's needs also contributes to cost reduction. We are capable of managing inventories and delivering products for customers in Japan, to achieve stable delivery.
The Advantages of Mitsubishi Materials Trading Corporation
Ability to conceive of and develop new materials
We can produce iron, copper, stainless steel and other composite materials that are different from melted materials. We can develop new materials leveraging the properties of base metals/materials. When conceiving of and developing a material, we collaborate with our suppliers to fully use of the wealth of expertise available to us.
Ability to provide support from the medium- and long-term perspectives
Our deep knowledge of the automobile industry enables us to support customers through their medium- and long-term schedules when, for example, responding to the creation of a new model of automobile. We propose solutions that contribute technologically while always taking future needs into consideration.
Advantages and Benefits for Customers
Achieving total product cost reduction
We leverage our technical and development abilities to comprehensively solve the three key issues our customers face: cost reduction, quality stabilization, and new materials development. Not simply aiming to reduce the manufacturing cost of parts, we achieve comprehensive cost reduction without lowering quality through the use of durable materials.
Provisioning of applicable and deployable technologies
The technologies and manufacturing methods we propose are applicable and deployable for other products. There are many cases where customers benefitting from our achievements consulted with us regrading replacements, resulting in new contracts with us.
In addition, we have received inquiries regarding the development of new materials that do not meet JIS Standards from customers that have previously benefitted from our materials development performance.
A message from our representative
"To improve safety, durability is definitely important. We have technologies enabling us to develop highly durable materials, and I believe that we are capable of achieving results that satisfy the requirements of our customers. Going forward, improving thermal resistance will be increasingly important. Therefore, we are studying ways to achieve it every day.
The development of a new material is a project that requires several years to achieve. In long-term relationships such as this, we always review every process with comprehensive cost reduction firmly in mind as we propose various solutions. Ensuring that we keep up with the mass production schedules of our customers is our highest priority. We believe that meeting the needs of our customers is the starting point for all our work."
About products and services
Sintered bearings for automotive parts (oil-less bearings, oil-impregnating bearings, dry bearings)
While this production method is more suitable to mass production than cutting, it can produce high-precision parts with complex, three-dimensional shapes and enables the production of composite materials that cannot be realized with melted alloys, which leads to the optimization of materials.
In addition, as this method avoids wasting materials, it has superior environmental performance.
