7 Things You Did Not Know About Accuride

• By utilizing facilities on three continents, Accuride has become the standard for drawer slides and other sliding solutions across the globe over the past 50 years.
• Accuride’s AL4140 has a load rating of over 1,300 lbs.
• Accuride operates over one million square feet of manufacturing space around the world.

Engineering movement solutions for industries and companies around the world is no small feat. Fortunately for us, our team has been up to the challenge!

Utilizing facilities on three continents, we’ve become a standard for drawer slides and other sliding solutions across the globe over the past 50 years. Here’s How:

75 million square feet of material each year

In any given year, we plate as much as 75 million square feet of material each year. That’s more than 33 times as much square footage as the Empire State Building.

We make our slides with steel, aluminum, and stainless steel. Our steel slides are plated with zinc, black, white electrocoat, and weather-resistant finishes to add to the aesthetic prolong the lifespan of the slide.

3 Million Ball Bearings Per Day

Our North American factory uses an average of 3 million ball bearings every day! That’s 156 million ball bearings a year! That’s the equivalent of the amount of water needed to create a temporary ice hockey rink at Dodger Stadium.

The ball bearings, made of either steel, stainless steel, or polymer, are harnessed by ball retainers within the slide’s raceway. While the metal bearings give a higher load rating, slides with polymer ball bearings operate quieter. These ball bearings slides are often found in slides with the white electrocoat finish.

Another interesting fact about ball bearings is, you can fit 2 million 3/16″-diameter ball bearings inside a 55-gallon drum!

1 Million Square Feet of Space

Operating on three different continents, Accuride has 1 million square feet of manufacturing space. That’s equivalent to 17 American football fields.

With facilities in Europe, Asia, and of course North America we can provide our solutions across the globe. For our customers, this means they can work concurrently with our sales & engineering teams to promptly get the products they need when they need it.

10,000 to 50,000 cycles

A cycle for a ball bearing drawer slide typically ranges from 10,000 to 50,000 cycles*.

As mentioned in our last Slideology post: How Accuride Determines a Drawer Slide Load Rating, a cycle is one complete open/close of a drawer. The cycle test determines the load rating of the slide and allows our engineers to see how a slide will perform in a particular environment. Ensuring our customers receive the high-quality slide they’ve come to expect from Accuride.

7,100 Miles of Slides

We produce enough 18″ 3832 slides that roughly covers the distance from Accuride’s headquarters in Santa Fe Springs to the Middle of Turkey. That’s 7,100 miles!

1,300 lb. load rating

Accuride’s toughest slide, the AL4140, has a load rating of 1,323 lbs! This super heavy-duty slide is used in applications that require resistance to moisture or humidity.

One thing that makes this slide unique is the use of lightweight aluminum. The combination of aluminum and stainless steel ball bearings and ball retainers provide the right amount of resistance in conjunction with the slides’ weight resistance with the weight of aluminum slides.

55 Years

After setting up shop in South Gate, California in 1962, we moved to nearby Santa Fe Springs where we’re still headquartered 55 years later!

While our reach spans multiple continents, our operations are centered here in Southern California after all these years. Even with Los Angeles becoming a part of the Silicon Beach, we’ve remained committed to pushing the boundaries of our technology just as modern tech companies do.

With over 100 engineers on 3 different continents, we are constantly working on innovative solutions that not only meet but exceed our customer’s needs.

For more information on Accuride sliding hardware, visit our product catalog!