Sooner or later, anyone getting married faces a very practical question: Keep their own name, take their partner’s name, or use a hyphenated name? Companies face exactly this decision when they are acquired or merge. The difference is that in this case, the decision doesn’t involve a document at the registry office, but rather an entire product line with thousands of part numbers, printed components, packaging, and catalogs.

Before a company name becomes an established brand, there is usually a unique history behind it. Only later, often after decades, does that history become part of a larger corporate brand portfolio. FAG, now one of the three core brands of the Schaeffler Group, is a particularly good example of this development.

From an Independent Company to a Corporate Brand
FAG dates back to 1883, when Friedrich Fischer developed a ball grinding machine in Schweinfurt that made it possible to produce perfectly round steel balls. In 1905, this eventually led to the creation of the FAG brand. INA, meanwhile, traces its origins to Industrie GmbH, founded by the Schaeffler brothers in Herzogenaurach in 1946. From 1949 onwards, the company achieved international success with its innovative needle roller and cage assembly and established the Industrie-Nadellager brand name. Both were independent companies with their own names long before the Schaeffler name played a role.

The decisive step came in 2001, when the Schaeffler Group acquired FAG Kugelfischer Georg Schäfer AG, making Schaeffler the world’s second-largest rolling bearing manufacturer. In 2006, FAG Kugelfischer and INA were combined to form Schaeffler KG. FAG was not discontinued, however. Instead, it remained an established product brand alongside INA and LuK. Two independent companies became part of one corporate group with several brands, each maintaining its own technical focus.

From Business Unit to Independent Brand
A similar development can also be seen in more recent history, although with an additional step in between. At the end of 2018, SKF sold and carved out its linear motion business to the investment company Triton Partners. In 2019, the business officially began operating under the new name Ewellix. In 2025, Schaeffler AG acquired the Ewellix Group and integrated it into its linear technology product portfolio. What had once been a division of a large corporation therefore became an independent company before ultimately becoming a brand within the Schaeffler Group. The Ewellix case is a good example of a pattern that can be observed repeatedly throughout the bearing industry.

Not an Isolated Case in the Industry
Brand changes of this kind are not limited to individual companies. They are a recurring feature across the industry. Many manufacturers have undergone acquisitions, mergers, or rebrandings during their corporate history, each following its own approach to integration. For users, however, the key question remains the same: what does such a change actually mean for products, designations, and ordering processes?

What the transition means in practice
When such an integration takes place, product series are generally adopted on a one-to-one basis. This applies equally to dimensions, tolerances, and designs, so that a bearing can continue to be used without any design changes. At the same time, care must be taken to ensure that the new brand does not displace the company’s own, already established products in the portfolio.

One detail is often overlooked: Packaging can easily be redesigned, but a stamp on the component itself cannot be undone. Anyone holding a bearing with an old manufacturer’s stamp is also holding a piece of that transitional phase.

The designations themselves are also changing. Ewellix’s four-row ball unit LLTHS became the KLLT series at Schaeffler, and the LLTHR profile rail became the TKLT. So if you search using an old part number, you won’t automatically find the correct successor product; instead, you’ll need to look up the conversion between the old and new numbers.

When Old Part Numbers Suddenly Disappear
A typical real-world example: A customer wants to replace an LLTHR profile rail that has already been installed and is looking for a suitable replacement based on the old part number. However, this part number no longer appears in the current Schaeffler catalog. Only by cross-referencing the part number does it become clear that the series is now listed under the designation TKLT. Without this cross-reference, one might easily get the impression that the product has been discontinued, even though it is still technically available.

It is precisely this re-coding that will become part of daily practice in the goods receiving department. During the transition phase, old and new markings will appear simultaneously—in some cases even on the same component—such as when a product arrives still bearing the original stamp but already in new packaging and accompanied by a new delivery slip. Anyone in the receiving department or sales who checks whether a delivery matches an order must therefore keep track of both designations for the duration of the transition—not just the current one.

These technical adjustments are one thing. How much of an impact they have on the day-to-day work of manufacturers, suppliers, and customers is another.

What this means for manufacturers, suppliers, and customers
For manufacturers, such a transition primarily involves coordination efforts: design, logos, product names, and online documentation must be updated simultaneously and consistently, while maintaining the ability to deliver products throughout the entire transition phase. In some cases, the product portfolio is also expanded or streamlined as part of the integration, for example, when the product lines of two formerly separate companies overlap.

For suppliers and specialty retailers, this primarily means maintenance work within their own systems: conversion tables must be kept up to date so that an old part number reliably points to the correct successor product, even if the manufacturer itself has not yet published a complete cross-reference list.

For customers, this means one thing above all: pay close attention. Old order and manufacturer numbers may change or be discontinued entirely; technical documentation and CAD data are often moved to new online platforms; and old catalog links will no longer work after a certain transition period. Anyone who regularly orders the same product series should therefore keep an eye on such changes early on, rather than noticing them only during the next ordering process.

Conclusion
The technical specifications of products generally remain unchanged when they are integrated, but product names, packaging, and documentation do not. This is precisely why it’s worth keeping a close eye on changes in manufacturers and product renaming. After all, not every new product name represents a new product. Those who understand the background and use the correct conversion codes can avoid ordering errors and reliably find the right solution even after a brand change.