SKF has launched a new line of spherical roller bearings in North America. These bearings are specifically designed to increase uptime, lower production costs and reduce environmental impact for slab, billet and bloom continuous casting operations. These new bearings are engineered for excellent performance in extreme environments and have been proven through rigorous testing in real world steel mill applications, notes their maker.
“Extreme conditions unique to steel manufacturing like contamination, high static load and high temperature can result in costly unplanned equipment downtime, posing a significant threat to plant operations,” said Gustavo Guerrero, SKF’s director of product management for metals. “The launch of our new caster spherical roller bearings helps address those operational challenges with a durable, easy-to-install, cost-competitive solution, and represents the latest investment in our longstanding effort to drive innovation, increase bearing service life and create cost efficiencies for customers in the metals industry.”
Promised advantages of SKF’s new spherical roller bearings for continuous casting applications include:
- Increased bearing life from SKF-patented heat-treatment process and twice the wear resistance of standard bainite hardened bearings
- Optimized lubrication with a larger grease reservoir and a unique internal bearing design
- Easier mounting and dismounting with no “roller-drop”
- Superior resistance to cracking through compressive subsurface to help prevent unplanned downtime
- Full interchangeability with standard spherical roller bearings for easy upgrade or replacement
