News Release

NSK is the first company in the world to produce power rollers and disks, the core components of Half Toroidal CVTs, for practical application; NSK supplies units to Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. for EXTROID CVT (installed in the Cedric and Gloria automobile models), which was released on November 8, 1999. The Half Toroidal CVT differs from conventional CVT in its high power transmission, which has attracted widespread interest.The Half Toroidal CVT is applicable to large automobiles and small trucks. Smoother, more powerful running performance is achieved, along with dramatically reduced fuel consumption compared to conventional transmissions. Transmissions equipped with POWERTOROS Units comply with energy conservation and environment preservation standards. The Half Toroidal CVT is constructed to transmit power using the traction drive by shearing force of the oil film between power rollers, input disks and output disks. Practical application of this technique requires the development of power rollers and disks that withstand high contact pressure, and traction oil which produces a high traction coefficient. NSK began development of the Half Toroidal CVT in 1978, and has been working with Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. since 1986 on the practical application of the CVT for automobiles with large engine displacement. (Nissan developed the transmission system while NSK developed core components, such as power rollers and disks.) With its outstanding bearing technology, NSK has developed CVT steel, an extremely pure carbonized steel, for the POWERTOROS UNIT, while successfully producing the world's first durable power rollers and disks for automobiles by utilizing highly-advanced carbonitriding heat treatment and super-high precision processing of the traction surface. (More than 300 patent applications have been submitted for these power rollers and disks around the world.) Since 1982, NSK has been working on traction oil in cooperation with Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd., and shares ownership of several patents. Incorporating the ultimate in rolling technology, the Half Toroidal CVT enables continuous (stepless) speed change instead of the stepped speed change of gear. Half Toroidal CVT technology has attracted attention from automobile manufacturers and transmission suppliers around the world. NSK has started responding to a number of inquiries from overseas including the U.S. and Europe, for development orders and prototypes. By anticipating the dynamic expansion of demand across Japan, U.S. and Europe, NSK is aggressively developing business for POWERTOROS UNIT installed-CVT-systems on a