Cluster mill crown adjustment system

A crown adjustment system for a 20-high (1-2-3-4) cluster mill having a mill housing with a roll cavity containing upper and lower clusters, each of said clusters comprising a work roll, two first intermediate rolls, three second intermediate rolls, and four backing bearing assemblies, said second intermediate rolls of each cluster comprising an inner idler roll and two outer driven rolls, said mill housing having an operator's side and a drive side, said upper cluster backing bearing assemblies being designated A through D and said lower cluster backing bearing assemblies being designated E through H in a clockwise fashion as viewed from said operator's side, each backing bearing assembly comprising a shaft mounting a pair of endmost load supporting bearings and a plurality of intermediate load supporting bearings, each bearing comprising an inner ring, an outer ring and rollers therebetween, each bearing having a middle portion and terminating in sides, said shaft supporting a plurality of eccentrics between which said bearings are mounted, said eccentrics being non-rotatable with respect to said shaft, said shaft being supported against said mill housing by saddle assemblies equal in number to said eccentrics, each saddle assembly comprising a saddle shoe supporting a saddle ring within which one of said eccentrics is rotatably mounted, said saddle assemblies of at least one of said upper cluster B-C pair of backing bearing assemblies and said lower cluster F-G pair of backing bearing assemblies being provided with crown adjustment means for bending the shafts thereof, said at least one pair of backing bearing assemblies used for crown control profile adjustment each having segmented bridge means for transferring said load from said middle portion to said sides of each of the bearings thereof, said backing bearing assemblies of said at least one pair each having flexible spacing means between said eccentrics and said inner rings of said bearings thereon, and said backing bearing assemblies of said at least one pair each having flexible tie means for tying said bearings, eccentrics, bridge means and spacing means together.