In May 1941, Harold Frauenthal founded Kaydon Corporation in Muskegon, Michigan. Prior to that, Harold had progressed from a sales engineer to vice president at Bantam Bearings Corporation, where he filed numerous patents. Muskegon was chosen as the company's location due to its skilled workforce and favorable business collaborations. The name "Kaydon" was derived from the names of the founder's two children, Kay and Don.
During World War II, the U.S. Navy had an urgent need for highly precise thin-section bearings for gun turrets. Harold Frauenthal, the founder of Kaydon, was described as the "possibly the only person with the experience and capability" to complete this task. Despite shortages of equipment, materials, and labor during the war, Kaydon received the Navy-Marine Corps "E" Award, the highest honor a commercial company could receive, for its outstanding contributions to the war effort.
After World War II, Kaydon successfully transitioned from war to peace by improving production efficiency, sustained research and development efforts, and a focus on quality. Kaydon specialized in producing specialty bearings that other bearing manufacturers did not stock, supplying industries such as machine tools, automotive, manufacturing equipment, construction machinery, and nuclear reactors. In the 1950s, they invented the Reali-Slim® thin-section bearing, which remains the world's lightest and thinnest bearing to this day and is one of Kaydon's most popular product lines.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Kaydon continued its diversification efforts by providing bearing solutions for the aerospace, aviation, machine tool, and other industries. They developed specialized thin-section bearings designed to withstand the harsh conditions of space, used in Apollo spacesuits and lunar rovers, further solidifying Kaydon's engineering capabilities in innovative custom designs for unique applications.
In the 1980s, Kaydon developed thin-section and slewing ring bearings for new applications such as industrial robots, CT scanners, aerospace robotic arms, satellite launch systems, and wind turbines. In 1988, Kaydon established its first non-U.S. manufacturing facility in Mexico to meet the growing market demand. Kaydon's customized bearings gained attention for providing bearing solutions to the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia, Apache helicopters, and Bradley tanks.
In the 1990s, all of Kaydon's manufacturing plants obtained ISO 9001 quality certification, and the facilities serving the aerospace industry received AS9100 certification. With the growth of the wind energy business in the early 21st century, Kaydon produced pitch and yaw slewing bearings for wind turbines and opened a second factory in Mexico, as well as acquiring Avon Bearings to meet capacity requirements. The Avon facility in Ohio also offered Kaydon's popular bearing replacement and remanufacturing services.
In 2011, Kaydon opened its first factory outside of North America in Suzhou, China, primarily catering to the local medical equipment market. In 2013, Kaydon was acquired by SKF, and two years later in 2015, SKF opened a Kaydon bearing factory in its Cajamar site in Brazil to meet the demand in the South American wind energy market.
Feature & Application
Kaydon's solutions meet the stringent requirements of a wide range of industries, including aerospace and defense, commercial aviation, heavy equipment, industrial machinery, medical systems, mining, oil and gas, radar, renewable energy, robotics, semiconductors, solar power, and wind energy.
Product Portfolio
Kaydon offers four major product lines, including thin-section bearings, slewing ring bearings, custom bearings, and bearing remanufacturing services. Among them, Kaydon Reali-Slim® inch-size bearings are one of the most widely used thin-section bearings in the world. Kaydon's thin-section bearing solutions reduce weight, save space, minimize friction, enhance design flexibility, and provide precise operational accuracy. Kaydon Ultra-Slim® ultra-thin bearings push precise positioning and lightweight design to the limits.
Kaydon's slewing ring bearing solutions offer optimal economy in envelope dimensions, significant load-bearing capacity, and precise positioning. For customized and pre-engineered bearing solutions in military and commercial applications, Kaydon provides customers with ball bearings, roller bearings, slewing ring bearings, and turntable bearings ranging in diameter from 0.75" to 240", meeting the requirements of demanding applications.
Kaydon's bearing remanufacturing services extend the lifespan of bearings by 50% or more and reduce unplanned downtime. Compared to the cost of new bearings, remanufactured bearings can lower manufacturing costs by up to 75%.
