Oiles History

OILES and Oilless Bearings: How OILES Originated

The first page of Japanese oilless bearing history was created by an inevitable encounter by Sozo Kawasaki, the founder of OILES Corporation, with a tobacco processing machine in the latter half of 1920. Sozo Kawasaki, who was working for a tobacco factory at that time, amazingly stared at wooden bearings used in material feeder of a brand new, just imported, standard type tobacco roll machine. He was deeply impressed. Bearings used at that time contaminated the tobacco material with excess oil, while this was an oilless bearing which prevented the system from contamination. He immediately started his study on the oilless bearings from every aspect, and after numerous failures, he was granted a patent for the "manufacture of wooden oilless bearings", the first patent in Japan concerning oilless bearings. With never ending enthusiasm, he subsequently developed a "cast iron, oil-containing bearing" patented in 1942, utilizing cast iron's growing nature which is generally unfavorable. This was a unique development at that time when the main stream of the world's efforts was directed to apply powder metallurgy to bearings.

Today, customary applications of oilless bearings seen wherever sliding motions are, in all sorts of industries. This may be attributed to the prolonged efforts by OILES Corporation who built up the Japanese history of oilless bearings. It may well be stated that the OILES Age has just started off with a new field of hope stretching ahead.

Below are several reasons why OILES bearings are appreciated by many industrial sectors:

• No oiling is required which saves labor forces
• Factory facilities are not oil-contaminated leading to clean shops
• No great oil consumption conserves resources and energy
• No wasted oil produced causes no pollution for the sea and rivers

At the same time, OILES Corporation continues efforts to develop and improve products utilizing 40 years of experience and accumulated technical expertise.