TKR

Timken Co.

The Company was founded in 1899 by Henry Timken, who received two patents on the design of a tapered roller bearing. Timken grew to become the world’s largest manufacturer of tapered roller bearings. Over the years, the Company has expanded its breadth of bearing products beyond tapered roller bearings to include cylindrical, spherical, needle and precision ball bearings. In addition to bearings, Timken further broadened its portfolio to include a wide array of friction management products and maintenance services to improve the operation of customers’ machinery and equipment, such as lubricants, seals, bearing maintenance tools and condition-monitoring equipment. The Company also manufactures power transmission components and assemblies, as well as systems such as helicopter transmissions, high-quality alloy steel, bars and tubing to custom specifications to meet demanding performance requirements, and finished and semi-finished steel components.

The Company’s business strategy is to grow by optimizing its portfolio and organization. The Company is focused on those markets that offer attractive opportunities for growth and customers who place a premium on Timken’s capabilities.

On December 31, 2009, the Company completed the sale of the assets of its Needle Roller Bearings (NRB) operations to JTEKT Corporation. The NRB operations manufacture needle roller bearings, including a range of radial and thrust needle roller bearings, as well as bearing assemblies and loose needles, for automotive and industrial applications. The NRB operations have facilities in the United States, Canada, Europe and China. The Mobile Industries segment accounted for approximately 80 percent of the 2009 sales of the NRB operations.
Timken’s global footprint consists of 47 manufacturing facilities, 8 technology and engineering centers, 12 distribution centers and nearly 17,000 employees. Timken operates in 26 countries and territories.

Industry Segments

The Company operates under two business groups: the Steel Group and the Bearings and Power Transmission Group. The Bearings and Power Transmission Group is composed of three operating segments: (1) Mobile Industries, (2) Process Industries and (3) Aerospace and Defense. These three operating segments and the Steel Group comprise the Company’s four reportable segments. Financial information for the segments is discussed in Note 13 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Description of types of products and services from which each reportable segment derives its revenues
The Company’s reportable segments are business units that target different industry segments or types of product. Each reportable segment is managed separately because of the need to specifically address customer needs in these different industries.

The Mobile Industries segment provides bearings, power transmission components and related products and services. Customers of the Mobile Industries segment include original equipment manufacturers and suppliers for passenger cars, light trucks, medium and heavy-duty trucks, rail cars, locomotives and agricultural, construction and mining equipment. Customers also include aftermarket distributors of automotive products.

The Process Industries segment provides bearings, power transmission components and related products and services. Customers of the Process Industries segment include original equipment manufacturers of power transmission, energy and heavy industries machinery and equipment, including rolling mills, cement and aggregate processing equipment, paper mills, sawmills, printing presses, cranes, hoists, drawbridges, wind energy turbines, gear drives, coal conveyors and crushers, drilling equipment and food processing equipment. Customers also include aftermarket distributors of products other than those for steel and automotive applications.

The Aerospace and Defense segment manufactures bearings, helicopter transmission systems, rotor head assemblies, turbine engine components, gears and other precision flight-critical components for commercial and military aviation applications. The Aerospace and Defense segment also provides aftermarket services, including repair and overhaul of engines, transmissions and fuel controls as well as aerospace bearing repair and component reconditioning. In addition, the Aerospace and Defense segment also manufactures bearings for original equipment manufacturers of health and positioning control equipment.

The Steel segment manufactures more than 450 grades of carbon and alloy steel, which are produced in both solid and tubular sections with a variety of lengths and finishes. The Steel segment also manufactures custom-made steel products for both industrial and automotive applications, including precision steel components. Approximately 10% of the Company’s steel is consumed in its bearing operations. In addition, sales are made to other anti-friction bearing companies and to the automotive and truck, forging, construction, industrial equipment, oil and gas drilling companies and to steel service centers.

Measurement of segment profit or loss and segment assets

The Company evaluates performance and allocates resources based on return on capital and profitable growth. The primary measurement used by management to measure the financial performance of each segment is adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes, excluding special items such as impairment and restructuring charges, rationalization and integration costs, one-time gains or losses on sales of assets, allocated receipts received or payments made under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA), gains and losses on the dissolution of a subsidiary and other items similar in nature). The accounting policies of the reportable segments are the same as those described in the summary of significant accounting policies. Intersegment sales and transfers are recorded at values based on market prices, which creates intercompany profit on intersegment sales or transfers that is eliminated in consolidation.

Factors used by management to identify the enterprise’s reportable segments

The Company reports net sales by geographic area in a manner that is more reflective of how the Company operates its segments, which is by the destination of net sales. Long-lived assets by geographic area are reported by the location of the subsidiary.

Export sales from the United States and Canada are less than 10% of revenue. The Company’s Bearings and Power Transmission Group has historically participated in the global bearing industry, while the Steel Group has concentrated primarily on U.S. customers.

Timken’s non-U.S. operations are subject to normal international business risks not generally applicable to domestic business. These risks include currency fluctuation, changes in tariff restrictions, difficulties in establishing and maintaining relationships with local distributors and dealers, import and export licensing requirements, difficulties in staffing and managing geographically diverse operations and restrictive regulations by foreign governments, including price and exchange controls.

Products

The Timken Company manufactures two core product lines: anti-friction bearings and steel products. Differentiation in these two product lines is achieved by either: (1) differentiation by bearing type or steel type or (2) differentiation in the applications of bearings and steel.

Tapered Roller Bearings. The tapered roller bearing is Timken’s principal product in the anti-friction industry segment. It consists of four components: (1) the cone or inner race, (2) the cup or outer race, (3) the tapered rollers, which roll between the cup and cone and (4) the cage, which serves as a retainer and maintains proper spacing between the rollers. Timken manufactures or purchases these four components and then sells them in a wide variety of configurations and sizes.

The tapered rollers permit ready absorption of both radial and axial load combinations. For this reason, tapered roller bearings are particularly well-adapted to reducing friction where shafts, gears or wheels are used. The uses for tapered roller bearings are diverse and include applications on passenger cars, light and heavy trucks and trains, as well as a wide variety of industrial applications, ranging from very small gear drives to bearings over two meters in diameter for wind energy machines. A number of applications utilize bearings with sensors to measure parameters such as speed, load, temperature or overall bearing condition.

Matching bearings to the specific requirements of customers’ applications requires engineering and, often, sophisticated analytical techniques. The design of Timken’s tapered roller bearing permits distribution of unit pressures over the full length of the roller. This design, combined with high precision tolerances, proprietary internal geometry and premium quality material, provides Timken bearings with high load-carrying capacities, excellent friction-reducing qualities and long lives.

Precision Cylindrical and Ball Bearings. Timken’s aerospace and super precision facilities produce high-performance ball and cylindrical bearings for ultra high-speed and/or high-accuracy applications in the aerospace, medical and dental, computer and other industries. These bearings utilize ball and straight rolling elements and are in the super precision end of the general ball and straight roller bearing product range in the bearing industry. A majority of Timken’s aerospace and super precision bearings products are custom-designed bearings and spindle assemblies. They often involve specialized materials and coatings for use in applications that subject the bearings to extreme operating conditions of speed and temperature.

Spherical and Cylindrical Bearings. Timken produces spherical and cylindrical roller bearings for large gear drives, rolling mills and other process industry and infrastructure development applications. These products are sold worldwide to original equipment manufacturers and industrial distributors serving major industries, including construction and mining, natural resources, defense, pulp and paper production, rolling mills and general industrial goods.

Services. A small part of the business involves providing bearing reconditioning services for industrial and railroad customers, both domestically and internationally. These services accounted for less than 5% of the Company’s net sales for the year ended December 31, 2009.

Aerospace Products and Services. Through strategic acquisitions and ongoing product development, Timken continues to expand its portfolio of parts, systems and services for the aerospace market, where they are used in helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft for the military and commercial aviation. Timken provides design, manufacture and testing for a wide variety of power transmission and drive train components including transmissions, gears and rotor head components. Other parts include bearings, airfoils (such as blades, vanes, rotors and diffusers), nozzles and other precision flight critical components.

Timken also supplies comprehensive aftermarket maintenance, repair and overhaul services and parts for gas turbine engines, gearboxes and accessory systems in rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. Services range from aerospace bearing repair and component reconditioning to the complete overhaul of engines, transmissions and fuel controls.
Steel. Steel products include steels of low and intermediate alloy, as well as some carbon grades. These products are available in a wide range of solid and tubular sections with a variety of lengths and finishes. These steel products are used in a wide array of applications, including bearings, automotive transmissions, engine crankshafts, oil drilling components and other similarly demanding applications.

Timken also produces custom-made steel products, including steel components for automotive and industrial customers. This steel components business has provided the Company with the opportunity to further expand its market for tubing and capture higher value-added steel sales. It also enables Timken’s traditional tubing customers in the automotive and bearing industries to take advantage of higher-performing components that cost less than current alternative products. Customization of products is an important component of the Company’s steel business.