www.inddist.com
tion to cease and desist at the start of
2014. The repeated sale of counterfeit
products has now placed the existence
of this company in danger.
The Customer Side
Several bearings customers are finding themselves in trouble after having
inadvertently purchased counterfeit
bearings, according to the WBA.
A bearings customer in China recently ordered what they thought were
high-quality NTN bearings through a
local distributor. The bearings that they
had ordered for their use abroad were
deemed to be counterfeit and seized
by the Chinese Customs authorities. The
company was forced to bear unexpected and unnecessary high costs associated with procuring legitimate goods
required for their imminent use.
Another customer in Indonesia also
inadvertently bought counterfeit bearings from local distributors. After the
purchase, the customer noticed something wrong, and requested that NTN
verify their authenticity. After evalu-
ation by NTN, the goods were judged
as counterfeit. In other Asian countries
such as Thailand, Vietnam, India and
Pakistan, similar kinds of problems
often occur.
One ball bearing manufacturer, NSK,
has been educating their distributor
partners on how to identify and address counterfeiting activity. NSK has
also begun reaching out to end users
and companies in other industries, such
as electrical appliances manufacturers,
steel mills, and paper mills, on why it is
important to partner with authorized
distributors and not purchase fake
bearings.
Many of these regional companies
are highly influenced by the local marketplace and unaware of the dangers
involved in the use of fake bearings.
Through NSK’s education efforts with
distributors and end users, NSK distributor partners are learning more about
how to detect counterfeit operations.
They also explain why customers should
only deal with authorized distributors, and outline the dangers involved
should a counterfeit bearing fail during
manufacturing operations.
NSK is working with two distributors
to develop anti-counterfeiting programs and share issues and data.
Some of these counterfeit bearings have found their way into facilities
throughout the world and can cause production problems, damage equipment, and possibly cause injury to workers.
WBA is attempting to get the message out as to the dangers of counterfeit bearings. The group was founded in 2006 by three major regional bearing associations: the American Bearing Manufacturers’ Association (ABMA),
the Federation of European Bearing Manufacturers’ Associations (FEBMA),
and the Japan Bearing Industrial Association (JBIA).
Jack Keough is contributing editor of Industrial Distribution. He can be
reached at john.keough@comcast.net.
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