Roller apron for a continuous casting installation

A roller apron assembly for supporting a partially solidified strand at a continuous casting installation, especially for casting steel strands, comprising a plurality of pairs of cooperating rollers having roller ends and following one another in spaced relationship in the direction of travel of the cast strand, at least one roller pair possessing rollers having a different diameter of its rollers than the diameter of the rollers of another roller pair of said plurality of pairs of cooperating rollers, said pairs of rollers of respectively different diameter following one another in sequence, each of said rollers being rotatably mounted by only two bearings, said at least one roller pair defining larger size rollers each having a strand supporting portion, the bearings of said larger size rollers being mounted externally of the strand supporting portion, said another roller pair defining smaller size rollers, at least one smaller size roller having at least one of its bearings mounted within the strand supporting portion of the larger size rollers, said at least one smaller size roller having a strand supporting portion extending only between its two bearings such that said strand is adapted to be unsupported outwardly of the said at least one of the bearings of said one smaller size roller, whereby said one smaller size roller is adapted to rely upon the self-supporting effect of the strand edge for supporting the cast strand at that location.