In a steel plant, a walking beam moves material in bar form along a conveyor while it cools. At this particular steel manufacturing facility, plain-bush bearings on the walking beam were failing around six times per year, largely as a result of the challenging working environment, in particular an outside location and high loads.
Due to the high costs associated with replacement bearings, maintenance time and lost production, the plant called upon the expertise of NSK and its AIP Added Value Programme.
An NSK team analysed the application and suggested the adoption of a rolling element bearing, which would better cope with the demanding operating conditions and loads to save downtime and improve productivity. The solution of choice was the NSK HPS spherical roller bearing.
NSK’s HPS spherical roller bearings offer the brand’s highest load rating, meaning that machine and equipment OEMs to downsize in some applications. Notably, these bearings also provide temperature stability up to 200°C. They are available with a steel or brass cage and bore diameters from 40 to 260mm.
After installation, no failures occurred in the one-year review period. Indeed, there was no need for any intervention by the maintenance team whatsoever, as both contaminant ingress and the requirement for lubrication had reduced considerably.
