Pre-Mounted Tungsten Carbide Tile Sheets

Faster Radial Bearing Assembly, Lower Production Costs

The Bottleneck Every Bearing Shop Knows Too Well

If you build radial bearings for mud motors or downhole drilling tools, you already know the pain point: tile placement. Manually setting hundreds, often over a thousand individual tungsten carbide tiles into a bearing cavity is the slowest, most labor-intensive step on the production floor. It ties up skilled operators, introduces inconsistency, and puts a hard ceiling on your throughput.

Southern Carbide Company (SCC) eliminates that bottleneck with pre-mounted tungsten carbide tile sheets, fabricated in-house at our Texas facility. Each sheet holds 1,248 tiles pre-arranged on a single plastic carrier, ready for direct application. The result: faster assembly, lower labor costs, and consistent quality on every bearing that leaves your shop. We currently stock a standard sheet size and configuration for many common radial bearing applications. When your project requires a different size or layout, our team will work with you to develop a practical solution tailored to your specific bearing design.

The Traditional Assembly Problem

Building a TC tile radial bearing the conventional way is a painstaking process. An operator picks up individual tiles, typically 6 mm rounds, each just a few millimeters thick, and places them one by one into machined template or onto an adhesive-coated sheet. Each tile must be correctly oriented, evenly spaced, and seated flat before the assembly moves to brazing or sintering.

The math tells the story. A single SCC standard tile sheet holds 1,248 tiles. At a conservative pace of just 5 seconds per tile, pick, orient, place, manual placement takes 104 minutes per sheet equivalent. That is nearly two hours of skilled labor for one bearing's worth of tiles, assuming zero mistakes. In practice, operators must also re-check alignment, fix shifted tiles, and correct spacing errors, which pushes actual cycle times even higher.

The problems compound at scale:

•        Inconsistent spacing: Even experienced operators produce variation from tile to tile and bearing to bearing. Uneven gaps affect fluid flow paths and wear patterns in service.

•        Misalignment and rotation: A tile placed slightly off angle may not seat properly during brazing, creating a weak point.

•        Operator fatigue: Repetitive fine-motor work over hours leads to more errors as shifts progress.

•        Training burden: New hires require significant ramp-up time before they can place tiles at production speed with acceptable quality.

•        Scrap and rework: Misplaced tiles discovered after brazing mean scrapped material and costly rework.

In a market where the global mud motor segment alone is projected to grow, bearing manufacturers need to scale output, not get stuck on manual tile placement.

The SCC Approach

Inventory Support Local stock, blanket orders, scheduled releases.

Technical Collaboration Drawings, specifications, grade options, practical design review.

Application Fit Material, geometry, and layout matched to service conditions.

Need Help with a Wear Part or Drawing?

Send SCC your drawing, part number, or application details. Our team will review the requirement and work with you toward a practical solution.

Request for Quotation

Need Help with a Wear Part or Drawing?

Send SCC your drawing, part number, or application details. Our team will review the requirement and work with you toward a practical solution.