New bearings help recycle train rails
By Staff -- Purchasing, 11/19/1998
It's a dirty job recycling steel train rails, but Jersey Shore Steel does it every day. Its facilities deal with high temperatures and heavy materials. As a result, the company needs equipment that can handle the pressure.Jersey Steel Shore's one problem was the bearings it was using in its equipment. Jersey Steel's equipment is used in an extremely hostile environment for bearings, especially at the intermediate stage and finishing end of the mill, where steel cools rapidly. "At the intermediate stage, the steel is about 1,8508F," says Dave Keister, plant engineer at Jersey Shore Steel.
Bearings handle loads of more than 50,000 kilograms and speeds up to 300 rpm. Most bearings last 18 months, but one bearing lasted just over 60 hours. The bearing cages were breaking, which generated enough heat that the roll necks and inner rings would weld together.
Through its distributor, Applied Industrial Technologies, Jersey Shore Steel called on SKF to assess the application. The bearings producer recommended four-row tapered roller bearings with helical grooves machined into the bores to prevent the inner rings from welding to the roll necks. Since then, no cages have broken, which has boosted efficiency at the steel train rail recycler.
In addition, SKF recommended sealed bearings, which Jersey Shore Steel reports have worked extremely well. Keister says, "We've been able to double bearing life in the mill. With the sealed bearings, we're looking to quadruple the life of the bearing."
Another advantage: cost control. The seals keep grease in and water out of the bearing. The seals also reduce maintenance costs. "Before we went to sealed bearings, we had to re-grease the bearings every eight hours," says Keister. Now, Jersey Shore Steel cuts the cost of using grease, maintenance, and reclamation of the grease.
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