Buying & Application Guides
Practical reference material for identifying and cross-referencing industrial parts — no fabricated specs, only standards-based facts and data pulled from our own catalog.
Bearing Interchange Guide
Deep-groove ball bearing part numbers look manufacturer-specific, but for the standard 60xx/62xx/63xx series the boundary dimensions are set by ISO 15 — every major maker builds to the same bore/OD/width, so a bearing from one brand almost always has a direct, documented equivalent from another. This guide explains how to read the designation and find the equivalent.
Mounted Bearing & Pillow Block Guide
A pillow block, flange unit, or take-up bearing is really two parts sold as one assembly: a cast housing plus a self-aligning insert bearing. The insert's bore is coded using the same industry-standard conventions across SKF, FYH, IPTCI, Sealmaster, and other major mounted-bearing makers — once you can read the part number, finding an equivalent from a different brand is straightforward.
IEC Contactor Selection Guide
Unlike deep-groove bearings, IEC motor contactors don't share a common part-numbering system across brands — Allen-Bradley's Bulletin 100-C, Schneider Electric's TeSys, and Siemens' SIRIUS 3RT are each proprietary. What is standardized across all three is the IEC 60947-4-1 utilization-category rating system, so the reliable way to find an equivalent is to match by rating, not by translating a catalog number.