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News - RBC Industrial

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Engineer-Led Sourcing: How Technical Support Shortens the Procurement Cycle

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Engineer-Led Sourcing: How Technical Support Shortens the Procurement Cycle

Engineer-Led Sourcing: How Technical Support Shortens the Procurement Cycle Procurement slows down when a spec is unclear, a part number is obsolete, or a lead time is unknown. Engineer-led sourcing r...

Sep 24, 2026

Stock Depth and Same-Day MRO: The Cost of Unplanned Downtime

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Stock Depth and Same-Day MRO: The Cost of Unplanned Downtime

Stock Depth and Same-Day MRO: The Cost of Unplanned Downtime When a critical bearing or belt fails, every hour of unplanned downtime costs production. The fastest way to cut that cost is to have the r...

Sep 23, 2026

Section 232 Steel Tariffs: What the August Expansion Means for Your MRO Budget

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Section 232 Steel Tariffs: What the August Expansion Means for Your MRO Budget

Section 232 Steel Tariffs: What the August Expansion Means for Your MRO Budget The August 2026 expansion of Section 232 tariffs broadened the scope of steel and aluminum duties, adding pressure to the...

Sep 22, 2026

Bearing Mounting and Fit: Shaft Tolerances, Interference Classes, and Installation

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Bearing Mounting and Fit: Shaft Tolerances, Interference Classes, and Installation

Most rolling-element bearings do not wear out — they are installed wrong. Studies of premature bearing failures consistently point to mounting damage, improper fits, and contamination during installat...

Sep 11, 2026

Roller Chain and Sprockets: Pitch, Strands, and Tooth Count for Drive Reliability

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Roller Chain and Sprockets: Pitch, Strands, and Tooth Count for Drive Reliability

Roller chain drives are simple, efficient, and forgiving — until they are not. Most chain problems trace back to three decisions: the chain number, the sprocket tooth count, and how the drive is align...

Sep 9, 2026

Section 232 Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: What the August Expansion Means for Your Bearing and PT Budget

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Section 232 Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: What the August Expansion Means for Your Bearing and PT Budget

On August 18, the expanded Section 232 tariffs took effect, pulling 407 new steel and aluminum derivative subheadings under a 50% duty rate. The coverage reaches into HTS chapters 72, 73, 82, 84, 85, ...

Sep 8, 2026

V-Belt Drive Basics: Cross Sections, Sheave Nomenclature, and Tensioning

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

V-Belt Drive Basics: Cross Sections, Sheave Nomenclature, and Tensioning

V-belt drives are everywhere in an industrial plant, and they are usually the last thing on a maintenance checklist until a belt fails. Understanding how the drive is built — belt cross section, sheav...

Sep 8, 2026

Idler Sprockets: Bronze-Bushed Types and How to Use Them for Chain Tensioning

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Idler Sprockets: Bronze-Bushed Types and How to Use Them for Chain Tensioning

A chain drive is only as good as its tension and tracking. Run a chain too slack and it whips, slaps the guard, and accelerates wear on both the chain and the sprocket teeth. Run it misaligned and the...

Sep 7, 2026

Engineering-Class Sprockets: When Standard Stock Won't Carry the Load

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Engineering-Class Sprockets: When Standard Stock Won't Carry the Load

Standard stock sprockets are designed for a broad range of general service, and they cover most plant drives well. But every maintenance manager eventually runs into the application that stock simply ...

Sep 2, 2026

Timing Pulleys 101: XL, L, H, and XH Pitches and How to Read the Catalog Number

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Timing Pulleys 101: XL, L, H, and XH Pitches and How to Read the Catalog Number

Timing belt drives have one non-negotiable rule: the pulley pitch must match the belt pitch. A pulley built for a 3/8-inch pitch belt will not mesh correctly with a 1/2-inch pitch belt, no matter how ...

Sep 1, 2026

Food and Beverage Power Transmission: Washdown-Rated Sprockets, Gears, and Couplings

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Food and Beverage Power Transmission: Washdown-Rated Sprockets, Gears, and Couplings

Food and beverage plants are brutal on power transmission components. Washdown cycles with caustic cleaners and high-pressure water strip standard paint and plating, corrode shafts, and contaminate pr...

Aug 28, 2026

Screw Conveyor Components: Sizing Flights, Troughs, and Drives for Your Material

Liber Holdings, Dale Betz

Screw Conveyor Components: Sizing Flights, Troughs, and Drives for Your Material

Screw conveyors look simple — a shaft, some flights, a trough, and a drive. But every one of those elements is a specification decision, and getting it wrong means jamming, product damage, premature w...

Aug 26, 2026

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