According to SMS group, the replacement wheel set was shipped to thyssenkrupp Steel Europe’s Duisburg plant in Germany, where a planned inspection revealed that the prior wheel set, which served a finishing stand in the No. 2 hot rolling mill, was in imminent danger of failing. 

“When arriving on-site, the SMS team was able to verify the damage to the output gear wheel on the two-stage main gear unit that (thyssenkrupp) had discovered previously. The side plates had cracks, and the rim toothing had broken off at various points. The very same day, the team started work on a strategy to stabilize the defective gear unit as quickly as possible and so maintain production in the hot rolling mill, because a prolonged shutdown would have been unavoidable due to the lack of spare parts,” the company said. 

Within the first five days, the SMS staff formulated a plan to make a new output shaft as quickly as possible from raw materials on hand as well as material that could be sourced rapidly. In the end, the company delivered a complete, more powerful gear set in five months’ time. 

You can read more about the effort here.