Introduction

In a steel plant a walking beam moves material in bar form along a conveyor while it cools. This used plain bush type bearings that failed about 6 times per year. NSK analysed the application and suggested a rolling element bearing solution to save downtime and improve output. The plain bush bearings currently used was replaced with spherical roller bearings, these gave a theoretical life calculation of 7.2 years. The bearings were fitted and performed for a year without any intervention. Contaminant ingress reduced and lubrication reduced, giving greater savings to the customer.

Cold rolling mill
  • Walking Beam of a Steel Mill
Spherical Roller Bearing - EA Cage
  • Spherical Roller Bearing

Key Facts

  • High failure rate, plain bearings used, contaminated environment, high loads
  • Outside location, material transport of steel bars
  • NSK suggested a solution to save downtime and improve the production output
  • The NSK Spherical Roller Bearings have a longer life calculaion than actually used bearings
  • The NSK products performed for more than one year without any intervention
  • Large cost savings were obtained from reduced maintenance and lost production cost

Value Proposals

  • High failure rate, plain bearings used, contaminated environment, high loads
  • Outside location, material transport of steel bars
  • NSK suggested a solution to save downtime and improve the production output
  • The NSK Spherical Roller Bearings have a longer life calculaion than actually used bearings
  • The NSK products performed for more than one year without any intervention
  • Large cost savings were obtained from reduced maintenance and lost production cost

Product Features

  • High failure rate, plain bearings used, contaminated environment, high loads
  • Outside location, material transport of steel bars
  • NSK suggested a solution to save downtime and improve the production output
  • The NSK Spherical Roller Bearings have a longer life calculaion than actually used bearings
  • The NSK products performed for more than one year without any intervention
  • Large cost savings were obtained from reduced maintenance and lost production cost
Cost Saving Breakdown
Before Cost p.a. NSK Solution Cost p.a.
Bearing Costs 742 € Bearing Costs 430 €
Engineering Costs 655 € Engineering Costs 0 €
Costs of lost production 14 611 € Costs of lost production 0 €
Total Costs 15 986 € 430 €

Reference:SS-E-2-587