Roller bearings are the "heart" of the rolling mill and also the "major cost" of the rolling line spare parts. Many factory managers are overwhelmed by the tonnage steel cost assessment, but how to achieve cost reduction is often without a clear plan at the front line.

 

Fushun New Steel Rolling Mill's "Improvement Circle" has provided a benchmark answer: for bar products and full continuous rolling lines, the tonnage steel cost of bearings dropped from 0.58 yuan/ton to 0.31 yuan/ton (for the entire year of 2025), and then to 0.21 yuan/ton (in the first quarter of 2026), with a reduction of 46.6%; the out-of-storage cost was halved from 1.2613 million yuan to 633,900 yuan; the bearing burn-off delay was reduced from 839 minutes/year to 412 minutes/year, and the burn-off faults in 2026 first quarter were eliminated.

 

This set of achievements won the first prize at the Jianlong Group's self-management presentation and was also applied for a national patent, shared with Xilin Jianlong.

 

Today, Yunzhuan Steel will break down and explain these "six steps of action" - you can compare them with your own workshop after watching, and copy a few.

 

According to the official disclosure of Fushun New Steel, these six dimensions include "lubrication guarantee, structure optimization, assembly upgrade, full-cycle management", and each step provides action + data + whether you can copy:

 

Action 1: Lubrication guarantee - Clean the "blood" pipeline

This is the first lever for cost reduction. The details of the disclosure are very clear:

 

Upgrade the filter, install dust-proof caps, cut off dust invasion

Directionally adjust the oil seal lip direction, zero leakage rate of flat rolls

Vertical rolling mill thrust bearings add independent oil holes to eliminate lubrication dead zones

Result: The consumption of thrust bearings decreased from 25 sets/year to 7 sets/year, a reduction of 72%

?? Yunzhuan Steel's comment: This step is the most worth copying. Many workshops have bearing burn-offs, the root cause is not in the bearings, but in dirty oil and reversed sealing lip. The sealing lip being installed wrongly is a common problem in the industry. Fushun's step is a small improvement with a big gain.

 

Action 2: Offline detection and pre-lubrication device - "Check-up" before going online

This is the most hardcore step: The team used an old storage tank to re-standardize according to national standards, analyzed parameters, and independently developed an offline detection and pre-lubrication device. They added one-way valves and safety relief valves for secondary iteration and installation, enabling free switching between oil supply, gas supply, and oil-gas mixture modes.

 

Result: The detection coverage rate was 100%, and after going online, due to lubrication problems, there were no abnormal shutdowns - 0 times.

 

⚠️ Yunzhuan Steel's comment: This device was applied for a patent titled "An Oil-Lubrication Offline Test Device for Rolling Mills". Small steel mills may not follow this device, but the action of "must conduct lubrication system inspection before going online" can be copied at zero cost. 

 

Action 3: Structure optimization - Chewing through the tough bone of the coarse and medium rolling closed rolls

The team deeply analyzed the operational characteristics differences between coarse and medium rolling closed rolls and the precision rolling short stress rolls, and made targeted optimizations. This step is "tailored to the machine", not a one-size-fits-all approach.

 

Action 4: Assembly upgrade - Cut off the "installation loss"

System optimization of the bearing pre-installation assembly process, improvement of the pre-inspection standards, precise matching of tooling and supporting schemes, effectively reducing bearing installation losses.

 

Combined with the implemented root-cause treatment plan in Yunzhuan Steel's article "Rolling Mill Bearings Frequently Overheating and Burning Out?" - the heating temperature during assembly should not exceed 120℃, reasonable thermal expansion reserve for clearance should be reserved, and the new bearings must be re-measured for clearance after assembly - these are the synonyms for assembly upgrade. You can directly cross-reference them in the article and connect "Yunzhuan Steel has talked about it before" and "Fushun New Steel has achieved it" to establish a three-dimensional framework.

 

Action 5: Reuse of inner rings + residual value recovery - Extract the value of scrapped parts

This is the key leap for the tonnage steel cost to drop from 0.31 yuan/ton to 0.21 yuan/ton. Implementing the reuse of inner rings and residual value recovery loop, forming a management leap from passive maintenance to proactive prevention.

 

?? Yunzhuan Steel's comment: What are the standards for reusing inner rings? We have discussed before - the repair cost should be ≤ 50% and the service life should be ≥ 80%. Fushun was able to further reduce the cost per ton of steel by 0.10 yuan, and the reuse closed-loop system played a crucial role in this. This action is often overlooked by peers and yields the greatest benefits.

 

This action answers the most concerned questions of all plant managers: "Can the improvement results be solidified? Will it still work when changing the production line?" The answer is yes.

 

Line veteran workers often say, "The bearings are worn out, not broken." However, from the Fushun case, it seems that the bearings are more likely to be "damaged during installation, lubrication failure, and piping issues."

 

We previously discussed in the article "Roller Bearings Frequently Overheating and Burning Out?" - Controlling the four core details of lubrication cleanliness, assembly accuracy, sealing protection, and working condition stability can completely solve the problem of repeated overheating and burning out of bearings. Fushun New Steel used one year and actual data ranging from 0.58 to 0.21 yuan per ton to prove this.

 

Therefore, cost reduction is not about replacing cheaper bearings; it is about closing the management loopholes.

 

[ ] Is the lip seal of the frame oil seal direction correct? Is the horizontal roller still leaking oil?

[ ] Does the vertical rolling mill thrust bearing have an independent oil hole?

[ ] Was the lubrication system of the bearing inspected before being put into use?

[ ] Was the temperature of the assembly and hot installation controlled below 120°C? Was the clearance rechecked?

[ ] Is the scrap standard for the inner ring clear? Can the reused parts that meet the criteria of "repair cost ≤ 50% and service life ≥ 80%" be directly discarded?

[ ] Is there a closed-loop for residual value recovery?

[ ] Have the improvement results been formed into standardized operation documents?

 

Fushun New Steel has achieved a cost per ton of steel of 0.21 yuan.

 

What is the current cost per ton of roller bearings for your workshop? Please report the number in the comment section. Let's see where the industry average is.

 

If you think these six steps are useful, please forward them to your equipment plant manager - he is currently being chased by the tonnage cost KPI.