SKF and Timken awarded bearing excellence prize
The Bearing Specialists Association (BSA) named two recipients of its 2026 Bearing Manufacturer Excellence Award on Sept. 21. SKF’s QuickCollect Sensor CMDT 392 and Timken’s EnviroSpexx Energy Efficient Bearings were the products honored.
The annual award marks innovation and excellence in bearing-related product design and technology, as chosen by the bearing distribution committee. Over 450 people voted this year, according to the BSA’s press release.
A third company, Bearing Service, Inc. was awarded the 2026 BSA CBS Excellence Award for the most engagement with BSA’s proprietary sales training.
SKF’s sensor is intended to help workers make better decisions about bearings
“We're honored to receive this recognition from BSA because it highlights the value of practical innovation that helps customers improve reliability, reduce unplanned downtime and advance their predictive maintenance strategies,” said Sam Bainbridge, director of technology at SKF USA Inc, in a press release.
The SKF QuickCollect Sensor CMDT 392 is a handheld device that combines vibration, bearing condition and temperature measurements. It connects to a mobile app via Bluetooth.
"Innovation is most valuable when it helps customers make better decisions,” Bainbridge says in an email to Plant Services. “QuickCollect was designed to make machine health information practical and accessible, giving maintenance teams the insights they need to act with greater confidence.”
The device is intended to provide early identification of problems such as imbalance, misalignment, looseness, damage and lubrication issues in bearings.
Timken’s winning bearings are designed to improve energy efficiency from within the equipment
Timken’s winning entry, the EnviroSpexx Energy Efficient Bearings, offer enhanced geometries to extend bearing life, reduced torque and relatively cool operation. The end result, Timken says, is a bearing that decreases the amount of electricity needed to operate the equipment in which it is used.
In one study, a company using these bearings saw a 5-year energy savings of $841 and reduced their carbon generation by 2,827 lbs.
Timken did not return a request for comment.
About the Author
Megan Crouse
Megan Crouse has a decade of experience in business-to-business news and feature writing, including as first a writer and then the editor of Manufacturing.net. Her news and feature stories have appeared in Military & Aerospace Electronics, Fierce Wireless, TechRepublic, and eWeek. She copyedited cybersecurity news and features at Security Intelligence. She holds a degree in English Literature and minored in Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
