Name changes for Timken, but not quality

NORTH CANTON, Ohio—As it turns out, there is quite a bit in a name—including history, recognition, credibility and reputation.

And in the belting business, where customers seek high standards regardless of what company is on the label, those traits are essential to secure sales.

Timken Co., a manufacturer of engineered bearings and power transmission products, said recently that Carlisle-brand belts will now go to market as Timken Belts.

Officially, the name changes from "Carlisle Belts by Timken" to simply "Timken Belts."

"We're excited to take this next step of fully converting the business to carry the Timken Belts brand on the belts themselves, aligning the name with our already-proven quality," said Dave Dehlman, president of belts and chain for Timken.

Timken Belts has ISO-certified manufacturing facilities in Springfield, Mo., and Fort Scott, Kan., where belts are produced for the aggregate and mining, power sports, oil and gas, agriculture and forest products industries, among many others.

"We make Timken belts in the same factories and to the same specifications as Carlisle belts," said Dehlman. "We continue to follow stringent quality and performance requirements, which are hallmarks of the Timken brand. This means the belts will perform the same and can be matched on a drive with confidence."

Lori Grandanette, marketing manager for belts and chains for Timken, told Rubber News that the change to the new moniker was not taken lightly.

"With any brand change, there is lots of behind-the-scenes work, as this impacted all the Carlisle products we make," she said. "The scope (of the transition) was enormous, and we had to make sure the product nomenclature aligned with industry standards.

"And Timken itself has very high standards," she continued. "With Timken's blessing, we went through a rigorous process before we made the decision to put just 'Timken' on the belts. There was a lot of vetting to make sure that the belts meet the high Timken standards."

As a bit of Timken Belts history, the original Timken Roller Bearing Co. was incorporated by Henry Timken in 1899. Dayton Rubber Manufacturing Co. was founded in 1905, becoming Dayco in 1960. And Carlisle Cos. acquired the industrial belt division of Dayco in 2001.

Timken then acquired the Carlisle belt business in 2015, and the new labeling on the belts essentially completes a transition that was not unexpected.

"Nothing about the belts themselves is changing," Grandanette said. "When Timken purchased (the Carlisle belt business), they purchased the (use of the) name for a limited time as well. We knew this was coming."

Timken Belts include synchronous belts, heavy duty industrial V-belts, banded belts, light-duty FHP V-belts, specialty belts and agricultural belts, as well as sprockets, sheaves and bushings, and tools.

The company uses a range of elastomers, from EPDM to neoprene, and maintains the ability to mix compounds on-site for customized performance traits.

"We pride ourselves on our engineering ability, which is specific to the application," Grandanette said. "There is no one-size-fits-all list. We mix and match as needed.

"What makes it unique is our compounding, as we do much of that compounding on-site."

These engineering and compounding abilities, in turn, make the notion of going from a "napkin drawing" to a finished product a reality for belting customers.

"We really specialize in belts for the entire industrial distribution channel," Grandanette said. "We can cover a range of applications from industrial to HVAC."

In support of the name change, timkenbelts.com features new search options, a part number interchange tool, comprehensive part number listings, updated literature and a new Timken Belts catalog.

"For us, this is an exciting time," Grandanette said. "There is a lot of value in the Timken brand. To be able to go to market with Timken on the belts says a lot about the product and the strength of the Timken brand.

"We are all very proud to have that name on the belts—it's a pride thing."

Timken posted $3.5 billion in sales in 2020 and employs more than 17,000 people globally, operating from 42 countries.