bearing corporate logo type privately held company industry manufacturing predecessor premac inc founded rockford illinois u.s. december 14 1962 1962 12 14 headquarters roscoe illinois u.s. number of locations 1 principle manufacturing plant 2010 4 warehouses 2010 area served worldwide north america south america europe asia africa key people robert schroeder owner and ceo thomas schroeder owner and general manager products plain bearing rolling element bearings 3d printers services engineering cost reduction contract manufacturing revenue private owner the schroeder family subsidiaries pbc linear pbc lineartechnik gmbh 3dp unlimited website www.pbclinear.com pacific bearing corporation pbc is a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of plain bearings linear guides and custom machined parts . pbc is currently doing business as pbc linear and pbc lineartechnik gmbh contents 1 early history 2 origin of pacific bearing 3 origin of pbc linear 4 origin of the simplicity bearing 5 stress reliever bearing sample 6 contributions to technical community 7 locations 8 references 9 external links early history edit unknown to most pacific bearing corporation started off as a company called prodo mach corporation inc which was incorporated december 1962 in the city of rockford county of winnebago state of illinois usa . prodo mach corporation bought the assets of the precision machine shop of the globe imperial division of the harsco corporation which had been in the rockford il area since the 1940s and then changed its name to premac inc in january 1963 . premac was originally a manufacturer of ball valves for the ball valve company and international ball valve company . through the 1960s and 1970s the premac business grew from ball valves to skid plates and other contract machined parts for many of the large companies in the midwest united states such as caterpiller john deere international harvester corporation kendon exeter and ji case a division of ihc . the late 1970s brought financial hardships for many companies and when coupled with the oil crises of 1979 financial hardships were also seen by many families . in the early 1980s things actually got worse for many people and companies as the misery index the sum of the unemployment rate and the inflation rate had reached an all time high of 21.98 % . the mid west united states even saw record unemployment rates exceeding 20 % during this time . premac was no exception to seeing the hardships . some of premac s customers closed their doors others went on strike which left premac with a fraction of the customers it once had . origin of pacific bearing edit in september 1983 pacific bearing corp was officially incorporated . 1 the mid west united states was seeing the worst economic times since the great depression ; this recession was called the the early 1980s recession . unemployment in rockford illinois area rose to be the highest in the nation at 25 % . by 1983 the mid west was still deep into the recession ; however california and the west coast also known as the pacific coast had already pulled out of the recession fueled by technology boom of the 1980s . the managing team of pbc decided to call the company pacific bearing to give the impression that it was located in the pacific coast region of the united states . pacific bearing was originally created as the sales company for premac inc. in september 1985 pacific bearing and premac officially merged into one company under the name pacific bearing corporation . also merged was a third company and pbc acquired its assets . during the early to mid 1980 s pacific bearing continued to be a job shop and a bearing manufacturer . over this decade pbc s production focus shifted from a metalworking manufacturing company to primarily a bearing manufacturer . while pbc focused on plain bearings it did manufacture other types of bearings ; including bushings thrust bearings skid plates note not vehicle skid plates and custom parts . 2 in the mid 1990s pbc accelerated its growth by establishing a series of reciprocal trade agreements with leading european automation companies . 3 origin of pbc linear edit by the mid 2000s decade the product offering of pbc had vastly expanded from just the little red bearing for which it had originally become known and the management team decided to change the name of the company to pbc linear to more appropriately reflect the company s vast linear motion product offering . in addition pacific had a different connotation . in the early 1980s the pacific coast of the usa was a booming economy one of the strongest in the usa and being located on or near the pacific coast was a very positive thing . with the more global economy of the 2000s decade pacific carries the connotation of asia pacific where many companies copy premium bearing brands such as pbc ina fag timken thk etc. and then import these often sub par products into the usa and europe . due to the typically sub par quality levels the word pacific carried a negative connotation . citing these two reasons pbc changed the name of their company from pacific bearing to pbc linear in 2007 . 4 origin of the simplicity bearing edit in the 1960s premac was manufacturing many contract parts for the heavy industries located in the midwest united states . one of the parts being manufactured was a skid plate with premac s prelon material bonded to it . this eventually morphed into a round bushing as a bronze bearing replacement and sadle bearings for hydraulic pumps . in the very early 1980s a salesman for pbc visited companies in the detroit mi area to explain pbc s products and capabilities . at this time the primary use for pbc bearings was as a saddle bearing in hydraulic pumps typical inner diameter ranged from 6.000 inches to 14.000 inches for large trucks and equipment . a manufacturing engineer was in the meeting and asked if the technology could be adapted into a much smaller package as he had linear ball bearings which were constantly failing . a quick conference call with the factory and the concept for the simplicity bearing was born . initially the simplicity bearing was only offered in closed imperial sizes . pbc quickly developed an open version of the bearing to be used with supported shafts . open and closed pillow blocks flanged bearings die set bearings and bushings followed . the company then developed iso metric and finally jis metric bearings . stress reliever bearing sample edit little red bearing product sample . famous stress reliever one of the most well known samples distributed within the bearing industry is the little red bearing or simplicity stress reliever sample . pbc claims that their sample is so popular that they have sent out more than 5 250 000 stress relievers sent in the almost 30 years they have been in business . the sample has evolved over time . it initially started as a 1 2 simplicity plain bearing p n fl08 with 1 2 steel shaft and an approximate length of 4 inches . two color matching red caps were added to the end secure the bearing on the shaft reduce the noise of impact on the end and protect consumers from a possible sharp burr on the edge of the shaft . in order to increase the quantity of samples distributed without increasing the cost pacific bearing switched to samples based upon the 1 4 simplicity plain bearing p n fl04 . consumer feedback let the company know that engineers and technicians preferred the larger bearing size . pbc quickly switched to the 3 8 simplicity plain bearing p n fl08 which is the current standard size . in addition to the imperial inch little red bearing samples pbc also provides little blue bearings iso metric and little green bearings jis metric for customers located outside of north america . contributions to technical community edit pacific bearing has more than 20 patents awarded and pending . 6 the patents are related to bearings linear guides linear slides linear motors and nuts for lead screws . in 2009 pbc won design world magazine s leadership in engineering award in the area of motion control 7 because of their contributions in this area . additionally pacific bearing sponsors schools at various engineering competitions . 8 pacific bearing company is the creator and holder of the following patents 4 995 734 9 pillow block housing for a shaft supporting bearing 5 229 198 10 bearing material having a matrix impregnated with polymeric resin 6 149 308 11 linear rail system having preload adjustment apparatus 6 450 687 12 linear rail system having preload adjustment apparatus 7 091 679 13 magnetic thrust motor 7 478 597 14 multi axis gantry system 7 752 978 15 multifaceted guide rail guide assembly and method of forming guide assemblies locations edit throughout the years pbc has moved several times to grow and allow for more manufacturing space . the locations below is where the company resided through the years . pbc manufacturing warehouse locations 1940 april 1965 april 1965 january 1973 january 1973 july 1983 december 1983 may 1987 prodo machine corp & premac premac premac & pacific bearing premac & pacific bearing 909 23rd street rockford il 61108 usa 5601 industrial avenue rockford il 61111 usa 1500 11th avenue rockford il 61104 usa 2221 north central avenue rockford il 61132 2545 usa may 1987 november 1997 november 1997 present april 2006 present pacific bearing pacific bearing & pbc linear pbc lineartechnik gmbh 200 quaker rd rockford il 61104 usa 6402 e rockton rd roscoe il 61073 16 usa niermannsweg 11 15 d 40699 erkrath germany references edit business profile magazine pdf . design news magazine . design news . name change 250 000 stress relievers sent pbc linear fact sheet leadership in engineering award design world magazine . u.s. patent & trademark office . u.s. patent & trademark office . u.s. patent & trademark office . u.s. patent & trademark office . u.s. patent & trademark office . u.s. patent & trademark office . u.s. patent & trademark office . rockford register star pdf . external links edit pacific bearing companies portal retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title pacific bearing corp & oldid 710145782 categories manufacturing companies based in illinoiscompanies based in winnebago county illinoismanufacturing companies established in 1962manufacturing companies established in 1983manufacturing companies established in 2008hidden categories use mdy dates from february 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add 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