Changing rolls in six-high roll stand

Abstract

A changing apparatus for a standard six-high rolling stand comprises a changing carriage having a pair of similar full-set holders each provided with two vertically spaced working-roll supports and two vertically spaced backup-roll supports flanking the respective working-roll supports. These supports are vertically spaced like the respective rolls in the stand. Thus a full set of two working and two backup rolls can be held in either of the holders. The changing carriage can be displaced between upstream and downstream positions to axially align with the rolls in the stand. A loading carriage has a working-roll holder with two vertically spaced working-roll supports and a backup-roll holder with two vertically spaced backup-roll supports, the carriage being displaceable into a position with the working-roll supports of the working-roll holder aligned with the working-roll supports of one of the full-set holders and a position with the backup-roll supports of the backup-roll holder aligned with the backup-roll supports of the one full-set holder. The rolls can be axially shifted from the loading carriage holders into the one full-set holder, rolls are then axially shifted from the stand into the other full-set holder, and rolls in the one full-set holder are shifted into the roll stand.