What makes Dodge special? Why choose Dodge over a more commoditized player? What's unique about their bearings?

It's their sealing technology and locking mechanisms. The primary cause of failure for such industrial products is contamination ingress, like dust or water. Preventing contamination from reaching the grease is crucial. Dodge excels in sealing technology across their portfolio, whether it's gearboxes or bearings. They are very proficient at ingress protection. In outdoor mining applications, fine powder can destroy the inside of a bearing quickly. Dodge's tight sealing technology helps their products last longer.

What makes Dodge special? Why choose Dodge over a more commoditized player? What's unique about their bearings?

In the food industry, Dodge was once the only company with a performance guarantee. Most companies offer a quality of workmanship guarantee but won't cover damage from poor environments. Dodge guaranteed their products wouldn't fail due to ingress for a year. They have several products in the food and beverage space with this guarantee.

What were they paying per bearing?

Previously, they were probably paying $40 to $50 per bearing. After the change, it was $150 to $200 per bearing. They accepted this gladly because we demonstrated the savings. When you have unplanned downtime, your costs can be astronomical. In some industries, like the steel industry, for instance, when steel is coming out of a mill, there's a long line of conveyance. Pulleys are driven by gearboxes connected by a coupling to a pulley. They were replacing these couplings every three to six months, probably paying around $200 for a coupling. They switched to a $300 Dodge coupling, which was much tougher for that environment. Their unplanned downtime reduced to about a year, and they only needed to change it every year and a half. This significantly reduced the time spent changing out the coupling. People are willing to spend a lot of money to avoid unplanned downtime.