Patent ID: 7181949

Claim:
A rolling mill comprising: a rolling mill stand having a vertical median plane, a service side on one side of said stand and a drive side on an opposite side of said stand; a pair of horizontal work rolls in said stand for rolling a workpiece in the form of a metal strip; a respective intermediate roll bearing upon each of said work rolls; a respective backing roll bearing upon each of said intermediate rolls, each of said intermediate rolls having a bearing region extended axially beyond the respective work and bearing rolls by an amount equal to a displacement stroke of said intermediate rolls; one of said intermediate rolls being provided at only one end with a setback region turned toward one of said sides and the other of said intermediate rolls being provided with only one setback region turned toward the other of said sides, each of said setback regions being divided into two mutually adjoining inner and outer regions a and b, the inner region a being curved and forming a flush transition with the respective outer region b, each inner region a having a contraction following the trigonometric equation (1−x 2 )+y 2 =R 2 , each outer region b extending from the respective inner region a to the end of the respective bearing region, the inner and outer regions a and b conforming to the equations Region a: x = {square root over (R 2 − (R − d) 2 )} y(x) = R − {square root over (R 2 − (1 − x) 2 )} Region b: x = 1 − a y(x) = d = const, where x and y are coordinates of points on the surface of the intermediate roll, R is a radius of curvature of the inner region a, 1 is a length of the setback region, and d is an amount of roll diameter reduction.