According to Danieli, the refurbished gearbox was overhauled at its Coraopolis, Pa., USA, service center, with support from its specialized gear manufacturing center in Italy. There, rolling mill experts reverse-engineered the original pinions and redesigned them to improve teeth contact and load capacity, Danieli said. 

“The new design increases the mill safety factor by 30% by implementing different gear parameters. Additional improvement on contact pressure distribution has made it possible to decrease local contact pressure by 40% thanks to specific teeth corrections,” the company said. 

In addition, the gearbox body was overhauled to recover the original geometry, and bearing seats were re-machined. Furthermore, new double-tapered roller bearings were installed, replacing the original spherical bearings, Danieli said.