Newbee Transmission Achieves Technological Breakthrough in Spring-Pretensioned Rolling Mill Bearings
Jun 20,2025

NEWBEE TRANSMISSION Achieves Breakthrough in Research and Development of Spring-Pretensioned Rolling Mill Bearings As a core innovation in industrial transmission systems, bearing pretension technology is driving a revolutionary upgrade in the performance of rolling mill bearings. Through the breakthrough design of a spring-pretensioned structure, NEWBEE TRANSMISSION has successfully solved the problems of vibration control, thermal compensation, and service life bottlenecks in high-speed rolling scenarios, injecting new momentum into modern rolling mill systems. Analysis of Innovative Technical Advantages

1. Intelligent Thermal Compensation System

The spring-pretensioned module adopts shape memory alloy (SMA) and nonlinear stiffness design, which can dynamically compensate for 0.03-0.08mm axial thermal displacement when the temperature fluctuation of the rolling mill reaches 200°C. Compared with traditional hydraulic pretension, thermal stability is improved by 50%, completely eliminating the phenomenon of clearance loss caused by temperature rise. After application in a 1450 hot continuous rolling production line, the roll gap fluctuation was compressed from ±15μm to ±5μm, and the thickness consistency of the strip steel reached the highest level of ISO 10113.

2.Multi-Frequency Vibration Suppression Matrix

A three-stage conical spring is innovatively integrated with a magnetorheological damper to build an active vibration control network. The measured data shows that: - At a high speed of 4500rpm, the vibration intensity is reduced from 5.2mm/s to 1.8mm/s. - The attenuation rate of high-frequency harmonics from 500-3000Hz exceeds 75%. After application in a titanium alloy cold rolling line, the surface roughness (Ra) of the plate is optimized from 0.8μm to 0.3μm, and the smoothness is improved by 60%.

3. Resistant and Long-Life Design

Through the dynamic optimization algorithm of pretension force, the uniformity of raceway contact stress distribution is improved by 90%: - In the frequent reversing impact of the reversible rolling mill (peak load reaches 350% of the rated value), the overload energy absorption rate is increased by 40%. - The L10 life is extended from 8000 hours to 25,000 hours. In a stainless steel rolling mill renovation case, the bearing replacement cycle was extended from 2 months to 9 months, and the spare parts cost was reduced by 67%.

4. High-Speed Performance Breakthrough

A nanoscale graphene-coated spring component is developed, reducing the frictional temperature rise by 30°C:

The ultimate speed breaks through 15,000rpm (the upper limit of the traditional structure is 10,000rpm).

The failure rate of cage welding is zero. After application in a copper foil rolling mill, the production line speed was increased from 25m/s to 40m/s, and the production capacity increased by 60%.

Engineering Application Challenges and Countermeasures

Space-Limited Compression Scheme For compact rolling mill housings (installation space ≤150mm), a radial nested spring set is pioneered:

24 variable-stiffness spring sets are integrated into a Φ280mm bearing unit. - The axial space occupation is reduced by 55%, and the pretension force density is increased by 4 times. Through topological optimization design, the stress distribution uniformity reaches 99.2%.

Millisecond-Level Dynamic Response Control 

Equipped with a piezoelectric ceramic sensor and an AI control chip, it realizes 0.05ms-level real-time pretension force adjustment:

When the rolling force changes abruptly (>50kN/ms), the amplitude suppression rate is as high as 95%.

The risk of resonance instability is reduced to below 0.1%. After application in a new energy vehicle panel production line, the panel shape qualification rate jumped from 88% to 99.2%.

Digital Twin Maintenance System

Integrating a fiber Bragg sensing network to build a digital twin of bearing health:

Real-time monitoring of spring fatigue, pretension force attenuation, and micro-cracks.

The predictive maintenance accuracy reaches 98%, and unexpected downtime is reduced by 80%.

According to the application data of a leading steel plant, the annual maintenance cost is reduced by 3.2 million yuan.

Technological and Economic Revolution Although the initial cost of the spring-pretensioned system is 30% higher than that of the traditional structure, its full life cycle value is remarkable:

1. Energy efficiency improvement: Frictional power consumption is reduced by 25%, and annual power savings exceed 500,000 kWh.

2. Production capacity leap: The upper limit of rolling speed is increased by 40%, with an annual production increase of 120,000 tons. 3. Comprehensive cost: Maintenance costs are reduced by 55%, and downtime losses are reduced by 80%.

At present, NEWBEE TRANSMISSION's spring-pretensioned bearings have been widely used in new energy material rolling, aerospace alloy thin plates, and other fields. With the integration of intelligent materials and edge computing technology, microsecond-level adaptive pretension control will be realized in the future, laying a core foundation for the ultra-high-precision rolling era.

Technical Note: This achievement has obtained multiple patents, passed the TÜV Rheinland ISO 281:2007 EXTENDED life certification, and its performance parameters are more than 40% higher than other products.

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