Steel Mill Continuous Caster Drive Reduction
Hydraulic Retrofit and Redesign Eliminates Steel Mill Gear Reduction Failures.
Customer:
Steel ManufacturerIndustry:
Steel Industry, Castor, ManufacturingEquipment:
Continuous Caster Drive, Continuous Casting MachinesServices Provided:
Retrofit Redesign Gear ReductionResults:
Retrofitted existing reductions at 50% of the cost of a new unit. Zero failures to any units in 5+ years
Summary (Problem)
System Overview: When a steel mill started casting harder materials they began to experience gear reduction failures in 4-6 hours of the cast, when steel with unique metallurgical formulas were cast. . They experienced 15-20 failures and were constantly scrambling to keep the reductions in stock. The OEM could not provide a solution. An international engineering company also failed after over $1,000,000 in billing to the steel company.
Scope: IRG was asked to increase the reliability of the reduction.
Process and Outcome
Industrial Resource Group (IRG) machined the housing to accept a larger bearing. The input shaft metallurgy was changed to a stronger material and the radius at the diameter change was increased. IRG re-engineered the design and retrofitted the existing reductions at 50% of the cost of a new unit.
The results have been extremely positive, with zero IRG remanufactured reduction failures in 5+ years.