A Polish steel plant started production in its tandem cold mill in the 1970s. After many years of operation, a refurbishment was necessary and to reduce costs the mill consulted with a local technical university to convert the roll mill bearings from oil mist to oil bath lubrication. Unfortunately, this did not result in the expected improvements and the mill was left with a large problem. NSK engineers were consulted to review the mill design and they proposed the use of sealed clean KVS bearings with grease lubrication. These were installed and after 1 year of operation the performance excellent. As a result, the customer adopted this solution for all its Tandem Cold Mills resulting in a superior lifetime and reduced maintenance costs.
Before | Cost p.a. | NSK Solution | Cost p.a. | |
---|---|---|---|---|
28 pcs | 75.600 € | 18 pcs | 60.030 € | |
Almost 61 working hours lost | 4.373.117 | Only 18 hours lost | 1.405.645 | |
Costs of service hours | 14.000 € | 3 times less service hours than in previous solution | 4.500 € | |
Cost of mineral oil | 5.026 € | Bearings equipped with preinstalled grease | 0 € | |
Total Costs | € 4 467 743 | € 1 470 175 |
Reference:SS-E-5014