How NSK Bearings Achieved Reliable 360° Bearing Inspection with Jidoka

Using Jidoka’s AI-Powered smart vision inspection infrastructure, NSK Bearings automated 360° bearing inspection—reducing false positives, improving accuracy, and enabling high-speed inspection across 18 SKUs within a single compact station.

Use Case

Automotive

Result 1

98% accurate defect detection across all bearing variants

Deployments

Kompass (AI) enabled Tigris

Result 2

<0.5% false positives vs. >10% in legacy systems

Overview

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NSK Bearing is a leading manufacturer of precision bearings catering to automotive and industrial applications. The production involves multiple SKUs each requiring a flawless surface finish and strict dimensional accuracy.

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However, manual visual inspection posed significant challenges. Operators struggled to maintain consistency while inspecting high volumes, leading to undetected surface defects, high false positives, and reduced throughput. The need for a reliable, automated 360° inspection became essential to maintain quality, reduce human dependency, and support future production automation initiatives.

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Opportunity

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Ensuring defect-free bearing surfaces across multiple product variants presented unique challenges:

Required complete 360° inspection including Inner diameter surface and outer diameter surface within a compact station footprint.
Needed to accommodate 18 part SKUs at a common hardware setup.
Aimed to achieve faster inspection cycles (<10 seconds per part) to align with production takt times.
Enable traceability and defect highlighting for operator review and continuous improvement.

Jidoka’s Approach

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• 360° Imaging with Triple-Camera Architecture

The bearing is loaded using a precision grip fixture designed to hold and place each variant securely. Three industrial cameras capture all critical surfaces:

Top camera images the top face.
Camera 2 captures the inner diameter as the part rotates 360°.
Camera 3 captures continuous images of the outer diameter during the same rotation.

• Bottom-Face Inspection

Once top, ID and OD imaging are complete, the part is automatically flipped within the same station. The top camera then captures the bottom surface to ensure full-surface coverage.

• AI-Driven Defect Detection

Captured images are processed through Jidoka’s deep-learning Kompass engine, which classifies each bearing as OK or Not OK within 6 seconds. The system identifies common machining and surface defects such as dents, scratches, tool marks, or unwashed areas with 98% accuracy.

• Automated Decision and Handling

Good parts are transferred to the linear conveyor for downstream operations.
Defective parts are automatically removed via a pneumatic push rejection mechanism, ensuring seamless separation without disrupting the flow

• Smart Analytics & Visualization

Each inspection result is logged with visual defect highlights, enabling operator review, trend analysis, and traceability.

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Big Wins

Shared vision, remarkable results:

98%Accuracy

Reliable identification of surface defects across all bearing regions.

<0.5%False Positives

Massive reduction from legacy manual systems (>10%).

7,000+Bearings Inspected Daily

High throughput achieved within a 10-second cycle time.

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Compact Station (700 × 700 mm)

Optimized footprint enabling easy line integration.

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With Jidoka’s Kompass-powered inspection solution, NSK Bearings achieved a fully automated 360° bearing inspection process that combines precision, speed and scalability. The transformation delivered 98% defect detection accuracy, minimized false positives and enhanced overall product reliability—ultimately strengthening customer trust and paving the way for future factory automation.

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