When the highest quality is required, Hartford has the experience to provide the most robust and cost-effective design for your application, and is backed by its unparalleled quality laboratory in the industry with its scope, capability and reputation.

Hartford is committed to providing high-quality products through well-trained bearing technicians, widely respected continuous improvement plans and one of the most advanced quality laboratories in the industry.

Hartford's quality certification and commitment

Hartford Technologies follows the Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) standard of the Automotive Industry Action Group, which defines the steps required to ensure that each product meets customer requirements.

In addition, Hartford's advanced product quality planning process is applicable to all new and recurring ball and bearing plans, reflecting the concept of defect prevention and continuous improvement rather than defect detection.

This comprehensive process ensures that product design not only meets customer expectations, but also promotes collaborative strategies to help design potential problems, improve productivity and optimize quality.

Hartford Technologies can assist in APQP processes at all levels, from design recommendations to rapid prototyping, pre-production parts and tools, and full production.

We are committed to helping you bring your products to the market in the shortest time.

Quality certification test

Hartford quality assurance system includes three aspects, including the integrity of materials, tools used in manufacturing, and the accuracy and repeatability of inspection and measuring instruments used for testing and verifying specifications.

Some of the testing and measuring tools we use are:

CMM - provides Hartford technicians with the ability to determine the geometric dimensions of bearings and balls, including those with customized features.

Laser micrometer - an extremely accurate non-contact system, provides Hartford customers with the advantages of absolute measurement accuracy and the highest reproducibility in a wide range of dimensions.

Gauges - circular geometric gauges for roundness analysis; There are also hole gauges, height gauges and calipers for blind hole measurement.

Rockwell hardness tester

X-ray – used for conformance test with blueprint, wear and tear evaluation, and fault analysis.

In addition, Hartford Technologies uses a high-speed online X-ray system to check the bearings running in a single row on the belt to verify whether the number of balls in each bearing is correct. Bearings containing too few or too many balls will be removed by blast for analysis.

Optical comparator - used for accurate comparison with standard superimposed contours or scales.

Tensile tester - determine the ultimate tensile strength and fatigue strength.

Other tests Hartford can provide include:

Chemical analysis by ICP plasma spectrometer

Salt fog

Profilometer surface finish test

Organize inspection

fault analysis 

Noise test

Upper right: Before the parts are sent to the bearing assembly, this Hartford quality assurance camera accurately measures the "out-of-roundness" of each bearing race. Reject any bearing race outside the minimum/maximum circle. The Hartford system operates at a speed of about 1000 games per hour, which is very suitable for Hartford's well-known high-capacity bearing competition project.

Middle right: Hartford's precision automatic bearing assembly system has sensors that can indicate the presence of balls, races and separators. It is equipped with 2000 bearings per hour. It also measures the installation height to ensure that the inner race is correctly inserted into the bearing. If any parameter is not met, the part will be rejected; By forwarding the part to X-ray inspection.

Bottom right: X-ray vision system is an integral part of our automatic bearing assembly system, which can ensure that all the balls of each bearing are present. The bearing enters the X-ray machine through the conveyor belt to image the parts. If all the balls are present, the bearing is qualified; If a ball is missing, a stream of compressed air will push the bearing off the assembly line and into the waste box.

Hartford Technologies products also meet the following main standard industrial specifications:

ANSI/AFBMA standard 10 metal ball

ISO 3290 Rolling bearings - Balls - Dimensions and tolerances

DIN 5401 Finished steel balls for rolling bearings

ASTM F 2215

ASTM F2215

ASTM F2215-08

quality certification 

Hartford Technologies has passed ISO 9001:2015, IATF 16949:2016 and ISO 14001:2015 certification.

IATF 16949 and ISO 9001 define the quality system requirements for the design, development and production of automotive related products.

This important quality status title is unique in the global bearing industry and applies to the balls, bearings and bearing components produced by Hartford Connecticut factory and its manufacturing business in Shanghai, China. Hartford is unique among ball and bearing manufacturers, and all its manufacturing businesses meet this single quality standard, which is considered to be the most stringent.

ISO 14001 sets standards for the environmental management system and assures customers and others in our supply chain that we are measuring and improving the environmental impact.

Batch traceability

All products are fully traceable from raw materials to finished products. In addition to ensuring the highest quality of each bearing and ball project, Hartford Quality Laboratory can also assist in product analysis and troubleshooting, evaluate bearings used in test or field, determine design or material problems, and put forward suggestions for improving performance and service life.