Improving Reliability and Service Life of Plate Rolling Mill Bearings

Feb 09, 2023

Plate rolling mills have higher requirements for bearings because of the large loads. These requirements involve the bearing design, material selection, process and use of bearings. Integrating various factors, measures are taken to increase the service life of rolling mill bearings and reduce losses, thereby reducing production costs.

Steel mill factory all over the world now choose four-row tapered roller bearings or four-row cylindrical roller bearings for medium and heavy plate mill rolls, especially for work roll bearings. Due to the limitation of the size of the roll, the radial space between the bearing seat and the bearing is small, and more attention should be paid to the design of the bearing, especially the four-row cylindrical roller bearing used as the work roll. Because the damage of the bearing will greatly affect the rolled steel production, this is unacceptable to the steel mill plant, and it is also the reason why the steel mill customers pay special attention to the quality of the rolling mill bearings.

There are two main factors that affect the life of the rolling mill bearing, the radial basic dynamic load rating of the bearing and the material factor. The higher the basic radial dynamic load rating of the bearing, the longer the life of the bearing; and the material, Carburized steel is generally selected because of the large impact load, such as TIMKEN3311, G20Cr2Ni4A. Some manufacturers choose GCr15SiMn and GCr18Mo instead of carburized steel in order to reduce production costs. Although the hardness of the bearing can meet the requirements, the toughness is lower than that of carburized steel, so the rated dynamic load of the bearing is reduced and reduced bearing service life. Production process is also very important. In order to reduce the cost, the manufacturer uses turning instead of grinding to reduce the amount of grinding, so that coarse network carbides and soft spots appear on the surface of the bearing. The surface of the bearing is rough, which reduces the lubrication ability and leads to excessive bearing fatigue spalling occurs early and fails. If the carbides are grain refined, the bearing life will increase several times. At the same time, choosing the right lubricating oil is the basis to ensure that the bearing is in good condition, and it can also improve the service life of the bearing.

The service life of rolling mill bearings is related to many factors, and the manufacturer cut corners in a certain step, which will affect the service life of the entire set of bearings. As a manufacturer, we must check every step, such as the design of drawings, bearing raw materials, processing procedures, lubricating oil, packaging, transportation, etc., so that our customers will receive high-quality bearings, thereby improving steel mill customers' trust for Chinese rolling mills Bearings.