SKF’s new generation 4 SG spindle offers an exponential increase in service life, with numerous associated cost and time saving benefits. This arose out of the redesign of a slab grinding (SG) spindle for a key customer in the steel manufacturing industry.
“Spindles are used to grind slabs in the manufacturing of stainless steel slabs,” says junior project engineer, Andre van Loggerenberg. “Our customer had problems on all 13 SG spindles. These related to reliability, running accuracy, oil leakage, operating temperatures and service life, and they were causing costly downtime.
“Our solution consisted of a redesign of one of the SG spindles, which included the fitment of ultra-high precision bearings to improve accuracy during operation, the improvement of the sealing arrangements to reduce oil leakage and the balancing of rotating components to reduce vibration and improve bearing life,” explains Van Loggerenberg. The redesigned spindle, which weighs approximately 400 kg and runs at an operating speed of 3000 rpm, was subjected to thorough trial tests at SKF’s state-of-the-art facility in Boksburg to ensure that the required operating temperatures and vibration levels were not exceeded.
Following very successful test results, SKF replaced all the customer’s older spindles with the redesigned generation 4 spindles, which deliver a host of cost saving benefits to the steel manufacturer. Substantial improvements in product performance and reliability, as well as running accuracy, increased the customer’s uptime and production, while reduced oil leakage prevented damage to the end product. Operating temperatures were also reduced to accommodate the high ambient running temperatures.
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