In a steel plant, different processes demand different bearing types, depending on load, speed, temperature, and contamination. Here’s a process-by-process breakdown:
Conditions: Very high load, high speed, high temperature, water & scale contamination.
Main Bearing Types:
Four-row cylindrical roller bearings (support radial loads, used in backup rolls).
Four-row tapered roller bearings (handle combined radial & axial loads).
Spherical roller bearings (work rolls, intermediate rolls, severe misalignment tolerance).
Oil-film bearings (hot strip mills for high speed & heavy load, reducing metal-to-metal contact).
Conditions: High temperature, water, steam, scale, oscillation loads.
Main Bearing Types:
Spherical roller bearings (support rolls with misalignment capacity).
Cylindrical roller bearings (radial loads in guide rolls).
Sealed spherical/cylindrical bearings (protection against water ingress).
Needle roller bearings (oscillator rolls, compact design for small oscillating motions).
Conditions: Heat, dust, shock loads, long operation cycles.
Main Bearing Types:
Spherical roller bearings (blowers, coke pushers, charging equipment).
Cylindrical roller bearings (fans, compressors).
Thrust roller bearings (axial load in gas blowers and conveyors).
Conditions: Tilting, rotating heavy ladles, intermittent but high-load use.
Main Bearing Types:
Spherical roller bearings (ladle turrets, tilting converters).
Cylindrical roller bearings (drive shafts, gear systems).
Slewing bearings (large ladle turrets, ladle transfer cars).
Conditions: Heavy loads, impact, dusty environment.
Main Bearing Types:
Spherical roller bearings (overhead cranes, ladle cranes).
Cylindrical roller bearings (conveyors, drive drums).
Tapered roller bearings (wheel assemblies, gearboxes).
Slewing bearings (large cranes and rotators).
Conditions: More controlled, but require precision and reliability.
Main Bearing Types:
Deep groove ball bearings (electric motors, pumps).
Angular contact ball bearings (high-speed fans, compressors).
Cylindrical roller bearings (gearboxes).
Thrust ball bearings (axial load applications).
Here are some photos of the bearings:
Although bearings are used in almost every major section of production — from raw material handling to rolling mills. But the highest requirements for bearing quality typically come from the rolling mill section, especially in:
1. Rolling Mills (Hot & Cold Rolling)
Why most demanding:Bearings endure extremely high loads, very high speeds, and severe temperatures (up to 1000°C in hot rolling).They face shock loads, water, scale, and dust contamination, plus the need for continuous operation without failure.Failures cause immediate line stoppage, leading to huge productivity and cost losses.Oil-film bearings (especially for hot strip mills)
2. Continuous Casting Machines
Conditions:Bearings operate in high-temperature, high-moisture, and scale-filled environments.
They must resist heat, water infiltration, and corrosion.
Importance: Failures can damage casting strands and cause safety issues.
3. Coke Oven & Blast Furnace Blowers
Bearings in blowers and turbo-machinery need precision, stability, and long service life, but compared to rolling mills, the mechanical shocks and contamination are less extreme.
Conclusion:The rolling mill (especially hot and cold strip rolling) has the highest bearing quality requirements in a steel plant. Here, bearings must combine high load capacity, heat resistance, precision, and contamination resistance — making them the most critical and challenging application
The most commonly used rolling bearing types are four-row cylindrical roller bearings, four-row tapered roller bearings, and spherical roller bearings.
The three types of bearings used in rolling mills require much higher raw material selection, heat treatment methods, and processing geometric accuracy than general-purpose bearings. This is especially true for four-row cylindrical roller bearings and four-row tapered roller bearings, which often use case-hardened steel as raw material. This directly leads to a 3-4-fold price increase. Of course, the production time of case-hardened steel bearings is also doubled.
As a professional bearing supplier to steel mills in China, HSN company also stocks case-hardened steel bearings in its warehouse. If your steel mill urgently needs case-hardened steel bearings for a critical position in its production process, please contact our sales staff directly, who will dispatch the bearings as quickly as possible.
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