Adding Lubrication Management to the Timken Toolkit

Fresh oil often contains contaminants — debris and moisture that wear down bearings and gears and reduce machine life as well as profitability. In the process of doing its work, a lubricant picks up even more contaminants, which add to the problem.

Forty years ago, an U.S. engineer in Tennessee set out to make lubricants and machinery last longer, and the first-ever desiccant breather, a device used to remove moisture and prevent contaminants from entering equipment, was born. In 2023, Des-Case became part of the Timken portfolio. Des-Case products complement Timken’s existing product lines, offering customers powerful ways to extend the life of lubricants and machinery and reduce their environmental impact.

An ecosystem of best practices in lubrication management

Des-Case has grown organically and through acquisitions since its founding in 1983. Today, the desiccant breather is an integral part of precision lubrication and fluid management across the industrial world, keeping equipment running longer and reducing oil changes, downtime, and overall costs.

 Des-Case products cover the lubricant management spectrum, including prevention, contaminant removal and contaminant monitoring. “Between our breathers, filtration systems, visual oil analysis and condition monitoring systems, we provide an ecosystem of best practices in lubrication management for the entire plant,” says Jacques Cartier, president of Des-Case.

Des-Case’s customer base resembles Timken’s. Its products sit alongside Groeneveld-BEKA’s automatic lubrication systems and provide solutions that can extend the life of Timken bearings, since bearing breakdowns are so often a result of lubricant contamination.

“Between our breathers, filtration systems, visual oil analysis and condition monitoring systems, we provide an ecosystem of best practices in lubrication management for the entire plant.”

Jacques Cartier
President

The Des-Case acquisition adds another layer to Timken expertise and solutions. “A service engineer on my first day at Timken pointed out that our products could have helped a customer avoid the breakdown of a $50,000 bearing he’d been called in to fix the day before,” says Cartier. “We’re busy training engineers across the company about Des-Case products, so they can help Timken customers solve or avoid bearing and industrial motion problems.”

A largely untapped market

 In 2018, the company purchased RMF Systems, based in the Netherlands. “The RMF product line is popular with European customers, and we plan to grow that business significantly as we expand in Asia and the U.S.,” says Cartier. “We have a huge amount of upside in both of these markets.”

Globally, lubrication management is a largely untapped market. “Of the millions of lubrication-using applications on the planet, very few have been touched by filtration or breather systems,” says Cartier.

As a Timken company, Des-Case is well-positioned to ride that wave. “Our breather is the market leader, and we stay close to our customers to hear their ongoing feedback,” he says. The company’s recent launch of a digitally connected breather offers one example. “Customers wanted to be able to monitor their systems remotely,” he says. “It positions us well as Industry 4.0 gains momentum.”

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Published: 2024/06/13