Bearings for continuous casting roller aprons

Abstract

Rollers used in roller aprons, which support and guide the metal strand formed in a continuous casting mold, are made of a fixed shaft and elongated roller sleeve sections which are rotatably mounted upon the shaft. The shafts are fastened upon spaced apart rails secured to support plates. Bearings are arranged between the ends of each sleeve section and its shaft. Each bearing comprises a journal type bearing part and a thrust type bearing part. The journal type bearing part includes a cylindrical bronze sleeve non-rotatably fitted within its roller section end. A 'Teflon', bronze impregnated, thin wall liner bushing is fitted within a wide recess formed in the interior wall of the outer end of the bronze sleeve to thereby form about one-half of the journal bearing inner wall surface which is arranged in rotatable contact with its shaft. A bored support member, through which the shaft is extended and which connects the shaft to a rail, has a cylindrical part fitted into an endwise opening channel in the adjacent roller sleeve end. A transversely arranged, disk-like thrust bearing plate mounted on the inner transverse surface of the cylindrical part, engages with the co-planar, annular surfaces forming the outer ends of the bronze sleeve and its Teflon liner bushing to provide the thrust bearing part.