China is one of the earliest countries in the world to invent rolling bearings. From archaeological relics and data, it can be seen that the oldest bearing in China with a modern rolling bearing structure prototype appeared in Xuejiaya Village, Yongji County, Shanxi Province from 221 to 207 BC (Qin Dynasty). In 1280 AD (Yuan Dynasty), cylindrical rolling bearings were also used in ancient Chinese astronomical instruments. Although China had been at the forefront of world civilization in the field of rolling bearing technology in history, the bearing industry in old China was very backward. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, especially since the 1970s, under the strong promotion of reform and opening up, the bearing industry has entered a new period of high-quality and rapid development. In the fifty years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China's bearing industry has achieved remarkable achievements that have attracted worldwide attention!
Early research and development of wind turbine bearing series production workshop
Now the bearing production workshop
Bearings (abbreviated as rolling bearings) are widely used and strictly required supporting and basic components in the mechanical industry, known as the joints of machinery. Due to its wide range of use, it determines the diversity and complexity of bearing varieties. Due to strict requirements, the importance of bearing quality and performance is determined. The bearing manufacturing industry is a precision basic component manufacturing industry, with precision measured in 0.001 millimeters (mm), while the manufacturing tolerance of ordinary mechanical parts is generally only 0.01mm. The noise and vibration of the motor largely depend on the quality of the bearings; The swing and temperature rise of high-precision machine tool spindles are closely related to the quality of bearings. The performance of bearings in the communication satellite cyclone device directly affects its communication effectiveness; The failure of key bearings in aerospace and aviation can cause serious accidents. In summary, the precision, performance, lifespan, reliability, and various economic indicators of the main engine in various fields such as industry, agriculture, national defense, science and technology, and household appliances are closely related to bearings. Moreover, the development of the bearing industry is also related to the manufacturing level of China's major technical equipment and the export capacity of mechanical equipment.
Bearings are playing an increasingly important role in the national economy and national defense construction: before the establishment of New China, the bearing manufacturing industry was almost blank. The bearings required for mechanical equipment matching and maintenance are basically dependent on imports. At that time, there were only some bearing factories and shops in Wafangdian, Liaoning Province, as well as in Shenyang, Shanghai, and Changzhi, Shanxi Province. However, there was no factory that could independently produce the four components of bearings (inner and outer rings, rolling elements, and cages). In 1949, the annual production of bearings in China was only 138000 sets. In the fifty years since the establishment of China, the bearing industry has developed rapidly, with a variety of bearing varieties from few to many, product quality and technical level from low to high, and industry scale from small to large.
The development process of the bearing industry can be roughly divided into three stages:
（1） Foundation laying stage (1949-1957)
In 1949, Wafangdian Bearing Factory resumed production and became the first independent bearing production enterprise in China. During the Korean War, part of the Wafangdian Bearing Factory was relocated to Harbin and was completed and put into production in April 1951. In 1953, the bearing industry in Shanghai formed four central factories, namely Qinfuxing Axle Leading Factory, Shanggong Bearing Factory, Rongtai New Machine Factory, and Jinxing Iron Factory, as well as more than 10 satellite factories. With the assistance of the former Soviet Union, Luoyang Bearing Factory, one of the 156 key projects in China, broke ground and started construction at the end of March 1954. In 1957, 136000 sets of ordinary bearings were trial produced. At this point, the four main production bases of China's bearing industry, including Wafangdian, Harbin, Luoyang, and Shanghai, have initially formed, laying the foundation for the development of the bearing manufacturing industry. In 1957, the national bearing production exceeded the 10 million sets mark for the first time.
（2） System formation stage (1958-1977)
This stage is during the development period of the national "1-5" Five Year Plan, which brings new opportunities to the bearing industry. In the mid period of the First Five Year Plan, Luoyang Bearing Factory passed the national acceptance in July 1958 and was successfully completed and put into operation; Shanghai's bearing industry has begun to form a bearing industry base with local characteristics; Wafangdian and Harbin Bearing Factory have been enriched and improved, achieving significant development. At the same time, research and factory design institutions such as the Luoyang Bearing Research Institute and the Tenth Design and Research Institute, directly under the Ministry, have been established. At this period, the development of new products supporting the main engine in the bearing manufacturing industry has been rapid. Production of automotive universal joint needle roller bearings, magneto bearings, machine tool spindle bearings, and precision bearings has begun, and some supporting bearings required for main engines such as railway locomotives, steel mills, heavy machinery, petroleum industry, aviation power generators, tanks, etc. have been trial produced.
During the "2.5" period, in order to adapt to the development of agricultural mechanization, 38 bearing factories (points) were built in Chengdu, Hangzhou, Hefei, Wuxi, Jinan, Yantai, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Kunming, Changsha and other places, ushering in the first peak period of development of China's bearing industry. These bearing factories will develop into key enterprises in various provinces and cities in the future.
During the "3-5" period, starting from the mid-1960s, the focus of investment in China's bearing industry construction was concentrated in third tier areas far from coastal industrial development. In the construction of the third line, a number of bearing factories have been successively built in the southwest, northwest, and central southern regions, including Hongshan in Guizhou, Guiyang, Lanzhou, Hailin in Gansu, Haihong in Shaanxi, Northwest Ningxia, Haishan in Qinghai, and Xiangyang in Hubei, further improving the layout of the enterprises. Among them, Xiangyang Bearing Factory mainly produces automotive bearings. In the 1970s, during the "4-5" period, the bearing industry developed simultaneously with the Second Automobile Manufacturing Factory to meet the needs of the "big mining battle", becoming an emerging automotive bearing production base.
A group of local small and medium-sized bearing factories have been established, forming the second peak period of development in China's bearing industry. During the peak of factory construction in the early 1970s, there were over 600 rolling bearing manufacturers nationwide. During this period, short cylindrical roller bearings, spherical roller bearings, and tapered roller bearings all developed rapidly, and the variety and specifications of bearings became increasingly complete. By the early stage of the "Five Year Plan", China's bearing manufacturing industry gradually established five distinctive production bases in the bearing industry, including Wafangdian, Harbin, Luoyang, Xiangyang bearing factories, and Shanghai, as well as a wide range of small and medium-sized bearing enterprises. We have also established comprehensive research and factory design institutions, as well as professional factories for process equipment and testing instruments in some industries, forming a bearing industry system with a basic reasonable layout, complete scientific research production and logistics support. According to the statistics of 171 major enterprises in 1977, the total industrial output value reached 1.01 billion yuan (at a constant price for 70 years), with a bearing output of 120 million sets, a workforce of 147000, 48000 main production equipment, and a fixed asset original value of 1.49 billion yuan. The total output value and labor productivity of all employees were 6821 yuan/person · year, all of which made significant progress compared to the previous development period.
（3） The stage of high-quality and rapid development (1978-1999) opened a new page in Chinese history with the convening of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978, and the magnificent wave of reform surged on the land of our motherland. Under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory, the bearing industry has continuously promoted reform, expanded opening up, accelerated development, achieved great liberation of productivity, significantly enhanced comprehensive technological and economic strength, and increasingly enhanced its international influence. The industry has undergone historic changes, sparking the third wave in the history of bearing industry development.
During the "June 5th" period, the bearing industry implemented the policy of "Three Ups and One Improvement" of the Ministry of Machinery. Through technological transformation and introduction, the production layout was further improved, the production capacity of short-term products was enhanced, and economic benefits were increased. At the same time as introducing technology, we have carried out technical exchanges and cooperation with well-known bearing companies such as SKF from Sweden, NTN from Japan, NSK, and TIMKEN from the United States. During this period, new products such as sealed bearings, joint bearings, linear motion bearings, combination bearings, rotary arm bearings, and harmonic drive bearings were also developed. The design level of bearings gradually approached (or partially reached) the advanced level of similar foreign products. The 777/650 type steel rolling mill bearings produced by Wafangdian Bearing Factory have a service life of international advanced level and have won the National Silver Award for High Quality Products. The B and C-grade 3182120-3182122 and 2268120-226812 machine tool spindle bearings produced by Harbin Bearing Factory have won the National Silver Award for High Quality Products. The B3-706 and B3-707 precision optical coordinate boring machine spindle bearings designed by Luoyang Bearing Factory have won the National Quality Product Gold Award.
During the "Seventh Five Year Plan" period, under the promotion of reform and opening up, the industry implemented restructuring and cooperation, adjusted industrial structure, carried out technological transformation, supported the optimization and control of scattered industries, and the bearing industry continued to develop at a high speed. At the end of the Seventh Five Year Plan period in 1990, according to statistics from 290 major enterprises, the total industrial output value (90 year constant price) was 6.97 billion yuan, the production exceeded 590 million sets, and the original value of fixed assets was 4.42 billion yuan. A significant feature of this period is the significant increase in bearing exports. Compared with the end of the "June 5th" period, the foreign exchange earnings from bearing exports in this period increased by 16 times, with an average annual growth of 76%. In 90 years, it reached the highest level in history at that time, with export earnings reaching 182 million US dollars.
In the later stage of the "Eighth Five Year Plan", the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Mechanical and Electrical Affairs issued a notice on several measures to revitalize specific basic machinery and components, clarifying that bearings are national specific revitalization basic component products. The bearing industry seized this opportunity and promptly formulated the "Ninth Five Year Plan for the Development and Revitalization of the Bearing Industry". The industry sang the main melody of "revitalization", promoting the high-quality and rapid development of the bearing industry. The industry has focused on demand and enhanced the supporting capacity of key hosts, and has cooperated with the localization of imported equipment to develop and produce a batch of substitute imported products. For example, the domestic product matching rate of bearings required for the main equipment of Baosteel Phase I project is 34% for the variety and 80% for the quantity; The railway passenger car bearings independently developed by the industry have solved long-term quality critical problems and reached the level of similar products in the early 1990s internationally; The cylindrical roller bearings matched with mud pumps have been awarded the National Excellent Gold Product Award. The quality of metallurgical, mining, rolling mills, oil drilling rigs, and military specific bearing products has also significantly improved. A batch of new processes and specialized equipment and instruments have also been developed, such as the outer spherical bearing rubber cover machine and bearing parts demagnetization cleaning machine developed by Tianshui Axle Instrument Factory, and the railway bearing special equipment MK7675 CNC double end face grinder manufactured by Wafangdian Bearing Factory.
During the Ninth Five Year Plan period, the bearing industry has identified the development of "three vehicles" (automobiles, railway passenger cars and freight cars, engineering agricultural machinery and vehicles), "three machines" (metallurgical, mining, petrochemical machinery, precision machine tools, motors), and "three highs" (high added value, high-tech, high-precision and high-efficiency specialized equipment) bearings and equipment as specific revitalization products, focusing on solving prominent supply-demand contradictions, high technical difficulties, expanding export and foreign exchange earning capabilities, and improving economic benefits of bearing products and specialized process equipment. Due to the impact of the country's large economic environment in recent years, large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises in the industry have encountered great difficulties. Therefore, the implementation of the "Ninth Five Year Plan" project is still unsatisfactory, especially the technical transformation tasks in the next two years are still quite challenging. But there are also some assessment indicators that have made significant progress, such as the total industrial output value (90 year fixed price). By the year 2000, the target is 209, and the total industrial output value has reached 20 billion yuan, accounting for 95.7% of the assessment indicators. In the twenty years since the reform and opening up, the bearing industry has achieved a historic leap, which is mainly marked by:
The old planned economy system is gradually breaking down, a new market economy system has taken shape, and the bearing industry has established a relatively complete industrial system. The economy is developing rapidly, and the comprehensive economic strength is rapidly increasing. Based on a 90 year fixed price calculation, the total output value of the bearing industry of designated enterprises was 1.93 billion yuan in 1978, but by 1997 it had reached 12.74 billion yuan, an increase of 5.6 times, with an average annual growth rate of 10.4%, making it the fastest period for the development of the bearing economy in New China. (Calculated based on total sales, it has increased by 10.7 times over the past 20 years, with an average annual growth rate of 13.8%). During this period, due to the rapid development of township enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises, the production capacity of bearings has been steadily increasing. The total industrial output value of the entire industry in 1997 has reached 20 billion yuan. Based on this estimate, the annual average growth rate in the past two decades has reached 13.2%. The total industrial output value of designated enterprises in 1980 (at a constant price for 90 years) was only 2 billion yuan, but by 1991 it had reached 8.04 billion yuan, indicating that the bearing industry had achieved the strategic goal of doubling the total industrial output value ahead of schedule. Fixed assets investment increased significantly, and production capacity and technical level reached a new level. In the "Six Five", "Seven Five", and "Eight Five" five-year plans, the central, provincial, municipal, and local governments invested 7.4 billion yuan in the technological transformation and infrastructure of the bearing industry (including 200 million yuan in "Six Five", 1.9 billion yuan in "Seven Five", and 5.3 billion yuan in "Eight Five"), and proposed 4.2 billion yuan in "Nine Five", which rapidly enhanced production capacity and significantly improved technological level.
The bearing industry has greatly enhanced its supporting capacity for the main engine and major technological equipment, providing high-quality new products for national defense construction and the development of high-tech; The share of bearing exports is relatively high. In 1997, the total export value of bearings in the industry was 780 million sets, generating a foreign exchange of 430 million US dollars. In terms of output value, it has accounted for 17.6%, and in terms of output, it has reached 43.3%. The internationalization level of the bearing market has significantly improved.