Bearings, Quality & Environment

Pursuing product quality and respecting the environment are crucial to our core values. Thanks to innovative solutions from the experts at GGB, our industry-leading, in-house R&D facilities continue to generate technologically superior products and processes respectful of the environment.

Superior Quality Bearings
GGB offers a broad product range of metal-polymer, filament wound, solid polymer plain bearings as well as bushing blocks and thrust plates, metal and bimetal bearings and assemblies. Our portfolio of superior products offers improved energy efficiency, reduced noise, and lower assembly and material costs in addition to greater performance and environmental benefits. Customers can rely on our comprehensive support from design to delivery, benefitting from some of the industry’s shortest lead-times.

As the global leader in high performance bearing solutions, GGB is certified to world-class standards including ISO 9001 for quality management systems, ISO/TS 16949 for international quality management specification for suppliers of automotive components, ISO 140001 for environmental management systems and OHSAS 18001, the Occupational Health and Safety Management standard.

Elevated Standards
GGB North America is certified to AS 9100C, the aerospace industry’s standard for quality management systems for the manufacture of metal-backed bearings and filament wound bearings and washers. The system promotes continuous improvement by reducing variance in processes and delivering consistently high-quality products. With access to the best practices of the aerospace industry, we have aligned our quality management system with the industry’s global standard.

Successfully achieving four global standard certifications simultaneously, GGB France has been recertified to ISO 9001 for quality management systems, ISO/TS 16949 for quality management in the automotive supply chain, OHSAS 18001 for health and safety management systems and ISO 14001 for environmental management systems.

GGB Heilbronn has been certified by Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd. Co. KG to supply precision machining, bearings and washers in addition to special metal-polymer bearings. Rolls-Royce customers include more than 500 airlines, 4,000 corporate aircraft operators, 160 armed forces and more than 2,000 marine customers, including 50 navies in addition to their energy customers in nearly 120 countries.

Our Suzhou production facility and sales office near Shanghai received TS-16949 and ISO 9001 certification after less than one year in production for the international quality management specification for suppliers of automotive components. These standards define quality system requirements for the design, development, production, installation and servicing of automotive-related products.

Our Environmental Commitment
GGB is committed to safeguarding the environment with sound business practices by preventing pollution and minimizing waste through recycling. Our commitment to responsible environmental stewardship extends to our products, including a line of lead-free plain bearings that comply with the EU End of Life Vehicles (ELV) and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directives. We have also developed a series of environmentally friendly bearings designed specifically for renewable energy applications that prevent river pollution by hydropower plants.

Our self-lubricating maintenance-free bearings have less impact on the environment by replacing heavy, bulky, greased or oiled bearings. GGB meets the most stringent performance requirements with economical solutions; offering customers reduced maintenance, higher load capacity, shock loading resistance and improved performance.

GGB Heilbronn: 100% Reused, Recovered, Recycled
GGB production plants in Germany and France have developed practices to completely eliminate waste. One is GGB Heilbronn, having achieved a 100% recycling rate of all waste at the plant through recycling and recovery.

Zero waste at the plant has been achieved by:

refining oil and water for reprocessing
burning foil in an incineration plant
reusing and granulating plastic
recycling paper and cardboard for reuse
burning wood in a biomass thermal power plant
incinerating residual waste, heating water to create steam to power a turbine
A Sustainable Future for Business and the Environment 
We continue to develop programs and procedures to comply with all applicable laws and even exceed regulatory requirements by implementing programs and procedures to assure compliance. By providing our employees with training, performance reviews and incentives, we strive for continual improvements by constantly reviewing our goals, objectives and performance.