By replacing standard solid bearings with split cylindrical or spherical roller bearings, process manufacturers can reduce repair and overhaul costs on complex drive units for heavy machinery, including steel rolling mills and extruders.

For process manufacturing companies, replacing worn or damaged bearings on drive units for heavy machinery is both time consuming and costly. Repair and overhaul of components soaks up valuable time and resources, often resulting in costly production downtime, while the equipment or machinery is offline being repaired. The harsh operating environment can also mean more regular maintenance being required on machinery.

In the steel industry, for example, split bearings can replace sliding bearings to support the heavy universal joint drive shafts on large rolling mills. For a typical rolling mill, the work rolls are driven by universal joint drive shafts. After every rolling cycle, the height of the rolls is adjusted. The drive shafts have to follow this adjusting movement and so are fitted with universal joints. Due to this height adjustment, the shaft length also varies, which must be compensated for in a coupling sleeve.