Bianchi Industrial and IKO

IKO Nippon Thompson Co. Ltd. specialises in the manufacture and sale of needle bearings, linear motion guides and automation products.

Ever since it became the leading manufacturer of needle bearings in Japan in 1959, Nippon Thompson has established an international reputation as an innovative manufacturer of high quality, precision bearings. Using their expertise and technology acquired over years of manufacturing needle bearings, they have developed a line of recirculating linear guide units with carriages and rails. Since the first recirculating linear guide units or Linear Way products were introduced in 1978, they have become important components for industrial robots, numerical-control machine tools and other types of sophisticated equipment used in the semiconductor industry. Nippon Thompson has developed a wide range of stainless steel products with special lubrication especially for these highly demanding applications, which are also suitable for use in clean rooms.

The company's products are manufactured at nine sites in Japan and sold on the internal market and abroad under the IKO brand. The national sales and support network is made up of nine branches and 15 sales offices. Nippon Thompson is represented abroad by an integrated network of distributors, sales representatives and branches in the United States and Europe. The European branch, Nippon Thompson Europe BV, is based in the Netherlands and has branches in Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom. The German, Spanish and British branches have their own warehouse and the facilities to modify linear motion products on the basis of customer requirements.