Part of Union Electric Steel, Davy Roll is a major European supplier of cast rolls to the global metalworking industry with a capacity in excess of 20,000 tonnes per annum. The company approached Farrat with the objective of moving a Churchill roll grinder from Midland Roll in Crewe to Davy Roll in Gateshead. The engineer, who had already designed several foundations for the client contacted us with a view to designing a bespoke isolation system.
Roll grinders present a unique set of challenges as they are not only high precision machines but they are also large volume pieces of equipment with a single unit often measuring up to 10 metres in length and up to 400 tonnes. The machines are long and thin and they have a fixed headstock but the tailstock location will vary depending on the length of roll.
There are two key aspects to the unit: a roll bed to carry component and a wheel head bed on which the grinding head traverses along the roll. The machines are generally installed in areas where there is significant risk of shock and vibration but they are simultaneously required to have lengthy periods of uptime. Any disturbances can potentially lead to a reduction in accuracy and so the effective control of shock and vibration is vital.
