Condensed Consolidated Statements Of Income (Unaudited) (USD $) In Millions, except Per Share data, unless otherwise specified	3 Months Ended
Apr. 04, 2015	Mar. 29, 2014
Income Statement [Abstract]
Net Sales	$ 911.7us-gaap_SalesRevenueGoodsNet	$ 801.2us-gaap_SalesRevenueGoodsNet
Cost of Sales	690.8us-gaap_CostOfGoodsSold	606.8us-gaap_CostOfGoodsSold
Gross Profit	220.9us-gaap_GrossProfit	194.4us-gaap_GrossProfit
Operating Expenses	157.3us-gaap_OperatingExpenses	124.7us-gaap_OperatingExpenses
Income From Operations	63.6us-gaap_OperatingIncomeLoss	69.7us-gaap_OperatingIncomeLoss
Interest Expense	13.6us-gaap_InterestExpense	10.4us-gaap_InterestExpense
Interest Income	1.2us-gaap_InvestmentIncomeInterest	1.7us-gaap_InvestmentIncomeInterest
Income Before Taxes	51.2	61.0
Provision For Income Taxes	13.3us-gaap_IncomeTaxExpenseBenefit	16.0us-gaap_IncomeTaxExpenseBenefit
Net Income	37.9us-gaap_ProfitLoss	45.0us-gaap_ProfitLoss
Less: Net Income Attributable to Noncontrolling Interests	1.5	1.2
Net Income Attributable to Regal Beloit Corporation	$ 36.4us-gaap_NetIncomeLoss	$ 43.8us-gaap_NetIncomeLoss
Earnings Per Share Attributable to Regal Beloit Corporation:
Basic (in dollars per share)	$ 0.81us-gaap_EarningsPerShareBasic	$ 0.97us-gaap_EarningsPerShareBasic
Assuming Dilution (in dollars per share)	$ 0.81us-gaap_EarningsPerShareDiluted	$ 0.96us-gaap_EarningsPerShareDiluted
Cash Dividends Declared Per Share (in dollars per share)	$ 0.22	$ 0.2
Weighted Average Number of Shares Outstanding:
Basic (in shares)	44.7	45.1
Assuming Dilution (in shares)	45.1	45.4

Aggregate dividends declared during the period for each share of common stock outstanding.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef

-Publisher FASB

-Name Accounting Standards Codification

-Topic 505

-SubTopic 10

-Section S99

-Paragraph 1

-Subparagraph (SX 210.3-04)

-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=27012166&loc=d3e187085-122770