PROBLEM

This steel mill is currently operating a slipper spindle coupling on their large reversing roughing mill. Unfortunately, they do have a high wear rate and the associated “slapping” causes other wear and fatigue failures in the drive system.

SOLUTION

A more popular approach is to do half the upgrade at a time. Since the roll end is the higher wear side, it is possible to replace that side with a universal joint while keeping the slipper on the drive side.

This reduces the initial capital expense and outage time. The drive side can be upgraded at a later time.

This two stage approach makes slipper spindle upgrades much more practical.