When the late John Wray first started Wray Engineering back in the 1960s, he built superchargers for cars in his backyard.
It was not long before word spread about his quick turn-around on repairs and maintenance and the company earned a reputation for customer service in Somerton Park, about a 20-minute drive outside of Adelaide heading towards the coast of South Australia.

John Wray hired John Still back in 1976 to work for him in the early days of business. Eventually, they became business partners and now John manages the business with just three other employees. It has remained a small, local, family-owned business to this day.

“Over the years, we have managed to keep up word-of-mouth promotion. We keep a pretty a low-key presence online and do not advertise. We operate solely on referrals,” says John Still, the current owner.

Operating on referrals alone in the age of digital marketing is quite a feat. It means showing up consistently to provide reliable service.

“We do all kinds of repair maintenance for people across multiple industries now. We work in the food and beverage industry, the wool industry, elevator manufacturing. Each day is a new challenge. My team can fix anything,” says John.

“We also manufacture parts and machinery. We look at old parts that could use improvements on the original designs.
Then we replace the old parts with new parts to prevent a breakdown in the future,” he says.

John frequents the BSC Lonsdale branch almost every day and has been going there for more than ten years.

“The Lonsdale branch is on the way home for me. I will do a site visit and do a redesign and then stop by BSC to talk to the guys there about what parts we can get ahold of to see if the design is possible.”

“We designed and built a machine for the wool industry. The wool fibers pass from the top to bottom and all the seeds and debris get crushed up. BSC supplied the bearings and the sprockets for that machine.”

Steve Wilkinson is an Account Manager for BSC Lonsdale and recently provided John with an NSK wide inner ring bearing solution for a conveyor roller he was manufacturing.

“Wray Engineering are a small company that a lot of large companies rely on to keep their production running. They are innovative in their repair and redesign of machinery for their customers and known for continuous improvement,” says Steve.

“We always recommend NSK wide inner ring bearings because they are known for quality and reliability. They don’t use third parties manufacturing, so they have full control over the quality of their bearings, and this gives them longevity,” says Steve.

“On the Wray Engineering project, the old bearings they were using kept breaking down. The new bearings we supplied locked onto the shaft, which prevents wear and tear,” he explains.

The NSK wide inner ring bearings are versatile with a range of bearing and housing options, and they can be used in various applications. They are specifically designed for installation into the corresponding wide inner ring housings. The bearing outer surfaces are spherical and match the inner surface of the housing. This assembly arrangement means the unit is self-aligning which gives them an increased load capacity.

The NSK wide inner ring bearing range offers a triple seal design for severe contamination conditions in harsh environmental conditions. The bearings are versatile coming in various shapes and with different shaft locking capabilities.

“When a manufacturer is looking to extend the life of their applications, NSK wide inner ring bearings are something that ensures longer service intervals and lower return rates,” says Steve.

“Now John can carry on running his business with the confidence that he can put these bearings in his rollers and his customer’s not going to come back down the track and say they have failed,” he concludes.

John runs a tight ship to keep up with the demand. It is rare he misses a call. Occasionally though, he does get the
odd call.

“Someone rang us up the other day asking if John Wray still makes his superchargers for cars. I think it would have been the 1960s since the last time we actually made one,” remarks John, with fond recollection.

 

Features and Benefits

  • Secure fitting options
  • Self-aligning
  • Increased load capacity
  • Light weight
  • Easy mounting and dismounting
  • Easy bearing replacement
  • Ability to be re-lubricated