Most of shape defects in steel strip are originated from the structure of rolling mill itself. For instance, strip crown occurs when the work roll is deformed by the bending moment induced on roll chocks. To get rids of the shape defects, it is necessary to increase the stiffness of rolling mill. The structure change of back-up roll is one of alternative ways to increase the mill stiffness without facility revamping from 4 high mill to 6 high mill. In this research work, the new back-up roll was developed and can be used in any type of 4 high mill to reduce the strip shape defects. The developed back-up roll consists of sleeve, arbor and phase angle adjusting system for arbor. The circumference of arbor is specially machined to adapt the strip width change during rolling. The experimental cold rolling test was done to prove the effectiveness of newly developed back-up roll. The experimental rolling results show that the new back-up roll has more powerful performance in reducing the shape defects than conventional back-up roll. It was also found that the new back-up roll has higher stability for shape control. In addition to, the only sleeve surface needs to be reground and changed in most cases, so that the maintenance cost can be greatly reduced.