Bearing design saves UK steel plant
7 Dec 2009
London - A bearing redesign has enabled a major UK steelworks to cut its maintenance costs on a annealing process line by close to Euro400,000 a year. The continuous line had been experiencing unplanned downtime of around 17-hours/year, on average, so that the company had to hire heavy lifting gear be hired, and recruit extra maintenance staff.
After analysing failed bearings on the annealing process line, NSK redesigned the assembly to accommodate a more robust bearing arrangement using crane sheave bearings – usually employed in crane sheaves, in quarries, ports and building sites. However, the high load capacity and advanced levels of sealing provided by these bearings means that they also ideal for applications in the demanding conditions prevailing in steel making environments.
An initial trial of the crane sheave bearings was undertaken on the annealing process line to determine the effectiveness of NSK’s solution. The new bearings provided a maintenance-free operating life three times longer than that of the original bearings, NSK calculating an operating life of at least five years for the bearings.
“We knew from previous steel industry experience that crane sheave bearings would deliver the optimum solution in this application,” said an NSK spokesman “They are essentially full complement cylindrical roller bearings offering an advanced sealing system that minimises grease leakage and increases resistance to the entry of water and other foreign substances.
