There are many types of oil film bearings, and they are widely used, such as steam turbines, generator sets, ball mills, fan bearings, bearings used in astronomy, aviation, aerospace equipment, etc. Rolling mill oil film bearing is one of the bearings with the largest load capacity in oil film bearings. For example, Baosteel's 5000mm wide and thick plate rolling mill has a maximum rolling pressure of 108,000kN, which is currently the largest plate rolling mill in China.

General rolling mills can be divided into steel rolling mills and non-ferrous metal rolling mills (mainly aluminum rolling mills and copper rolling mills), and can be divided into wire rolling mills, profile rolling mills, strip rolling mills, and plate rolling mills according to rolled products. thick plate, hot-rolled plate, cold-rolled plate), etc. The bearings used in rolling mills today mainly include rolling bearings and oil film bearings. Different types of bearings are selected according to the different performances and uses of rolling mills. Generally, oil film bearings are mainly used in steel rolling mills and copper rolling mills, and rolling bearings are used in aluminum rolling mills.

The rough rolling and intermediate rolling units of the wire rod mill mainly use rolling bearings, and the pre-finishing and finishing rolling mainly use oil film bearings.

Section steel mills and bar mills mostly use rolling bearings.

At present, rolling bearings are still the mainstay of strip mills in China, but there is a tendency to gradually develop towards oil film bearings due to reasons such as low load capacity and short life.

Plate rolling mills, general medium and heavy plate rolling mills and hot continuous rolling mills all use oil film bearings. Most of the cold continuous rolling mills use oil film bearings, and some use rolling bearings. Among them, Japanese cold rolling mills are widely used, and Western Europe, the United States, Russia, China, etc. Rolling bearings are rarely recommended in other countries.

This is related to the history and conditions of bearing development. There are many units and manufacturers researching and manufacturing rolling bearings in the world, which are widely used, take a long time to develop, and have mature technology and experience. The oil film bearings used in rolling mills have a history of less than 100 years. So far, the oil film bearing manufacturers for rolling mills that can integrate research, design, manufacture and service in an all-round way except Morgan Corporation of the United States, the former Soviet Union's All-Su Metallurgical Machinery Manufacturing Science Research Institute and Besides China's Taiyuan Heavy Machinery Group Corporation, there is no independent manufacturer that has its own brand and can independently carry out product design, research, development and manufacturing.

Some well-known companies that produce rolling mills in the world, such as German SMS Siemag, Italian Danieli, Austrian voestalpine Group, Japan's Ishikawajima Harima and Mitsubishi, do not have their own independent R&D and design capabilities in rolling mill oil film bearings. The Mesta Machinery Company of the United States and the former Sach Company of West Germany have also designed and manufactured oil film shafts for rolling mills.

Because of the slow development of technology, it gradually disappeared in the world. However, due to the rapid development and promotion of China's iron and steel industry in recent years, domestic and foreign manufacturers, especially famous manufacturers of plate and strip rolling mills, have increased their manpower, material and financial resources to research and develop oil film bearings for rolling mills, which has also promoted the development of oil film bearing technology for rolling mills. development and progress. Therefore, as far as rolling mills are concerned, the use of rolling bearings and oil film bearings has its own emphasis so far.