Laying head bearing with offset preloading

1. A rolling mill laying head comprising:

a housing;

a quill;

axially spaced front and rear bearing assemblies interposed between said quill and said housing for rotatably supporting said quill, said front bearing assembly comprising first and second axially spaced roller bearing sets contained, respectively, in first and second cartridges;

means for retaining said cartridges in an integral axially aligned abutting relationship; and

force exerting means for applying a radial preloading force to said first bearing set at a first location around the circumference thereof, said preloading force being opposed by a reactionary force acting on said second bearing set at a second location around the circumference thereof disposed 180° from said first location.

2. The rolling mill laying head of claim 1 wherein said first and second bearing sets each comprise roller elements captured between circular inner and outer races, said inner races being fixed with respect to said quill and said outer races being fixed with respect to said housing.

3. The rolling mill laying head of claim 2 wherein said force exerting means is supported by said housing and is arranged to act on the outer race of said first bearing set, and wherein said reactionary force is exerted by said housing acting on the outer race of said second bearing set.

4. The rolling mill laying head of claim 1 wherein said second cartridge is received and rotatably fixed in a bore in a front plate of said housing, and wherein said first cartridge projects axially from said second cartridge and inwardly into said housing.

5. The rolling mill laying head of claim 4 wherein said force exerting means is constructed and arranged to engage said first cartridge.

6. The rolling mill laying head of claim 1 wherein the center to center distance between said first and second bearing sets is between about 5 to 40% of the nominal diameter of said bearing sets.

7. The rolling mill laying head of claim 1 wherein said preloading force is resiliently applied.

8. A method of reducing clearances between the components of a bearing assembly rotatably supporting a quill in the housing of a rolling mill laying head, said method comprising:

subdividing the bearing assembly into axially spaced roller bearing sets;

containing said roller bearing sets in cartridges retained in an axially aligned abutting relationship; and

applying a preloading force to one of said cartridges at a first location around the circumference of its respective bearing set, and opposing said preloading force with a reactionary force applied to the other of said cartridges at a second location disposed 180° from said first location.