{"id":10,"date":"2026-10-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/grease-for-steel-mill-roller-bearings-at-200c\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:00:00","slug":"grease-for-steel-mill-roller-bearings-at-200c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/grease-for-steel-mill-roller-bearings-at-200c\/","title":{"rendered":"Grease for Steel-Mill Roller Bearings at 200 C+"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing kills grease like a continuous furnace environment. Roiler bearings inside continuous casting machines, reheat furnaces and galvanising lines see 150-250 °C at the bearing, splash from scale and cooling water, and shock loads every time a slab enters the roll gap. Standard lithium grease carbonises within weeks.<\/p>\n

What heat actually does to grease<\/h2>\n

Grease fails in heat through two mechanisms. First, the base oil evaporates and oxidises – the grease dries into a hard crust that no longer lubricates. Second, the thickener itself melts at its dropping point, and the whole structure collapses into soup. At 200 °C bearing temperature, conventional lithium (dropping point ~190 °C) has zero margin; the oil fraction is boiling off long before the thickener fails.<\/p>\n

Options that survive<\/h2>\n

Polyurea (dropping point 250 °C+):<\/strong> The default answer for continuous 150-200 °C. Exceptional oxidation stability means the oil does not acidify quickly, extending relubrication intervals even in heat. Our polyurea line is specified by steel mills across Southeast Asia for caster and furnace door bearings.<\/p>\n

Lithium complex (dropping point 240-260 °C):<\/strong> Better shear stability than polyurea under heavy shock load, slightly lower oxidation resistance. Preferred where loads are extreme and speeds are low.<\/p>\n

Calcium sulfonate complex (dropping point 300 °C+):<\/strong> The premium answer – also handles water and scale contamination better than anything else. Costlier per kilogram, but on a caster segment bearing that costs hours to reach, the extended interval pays for itself.<\/p>\n

Application discipline matters as much as the product<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Shorten intervals drastically.<\/strong> Rule of thumb: relubrication interval halves for every 15 °C above 80 °C. At 200 °C you are relubricating weekly or daily, not annually.<\/li>\n
  • Provide bleed paths.<\/strong> Fresh grease must be able to push the old, oxidised grease out. Blocked relief ports turn relubrication into churning.<\/li>\n
  • Watch for carbon build-up<\/strong> around the bearing – it is both an insulator (trapping heat) and a sign your interval is too long.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    A real setup from our export book<\/h2>\n

    A Vietnamese reheat furnace client runs our polyurea NLGI 2 on their walking-beam bearings at 180-210 °C, relubricated every 40 hours through insulated lines. Bearing life went from 5 months (with a generic lithium complex) to 22 months. The grease change paid back in the first swap-out avoided.<\/p>\n

    Running 200 °C+ positions? Send us the bearing type, temperature profile and current relubrication schedule – we will spec the grade and calculate the interval with you, samples free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Polyurea and complex-soap options that survive continuous high heat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-applications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llfgrease.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}