Profile, flatness and ski-end control in plate rolling : final report

The work in this project has involved work on the most important models in the plate rolling mills. The following subjects have been studied : - plate temperature model, - roll force model, - roll thermal expansion, - top-view plate shape, - plate warping and bending. Aceralia has worked with the temperature, force and shape (DAT) models. The changes introduced have imposed a complete tuning of the mill information system. The work has involved new hardware, new software, the gathering of data, development of models and evaluation of results. IRSID has concentrated on the flatness and profile model. FEM calculations were performed in order to develop the new crown and flatness model. An online regression model of the on-load profile of the work roll was developed. The model was tuned through the use of industrial databases. A new 2D model for roll thermal expansion has been developed. A measuring device has been built and tested to tune the new model for thermal expansion. Rautaruukki has mainly worked with the optimisation of its shape-rolling model (MAS) to increase yield (decrease scrap). It has also developed a neural force model to improve the prediction of force for small passes used within the MAS rolling. MEFOS has worked with almost all tasks in the project. Most work has been done in the area of ski-end control where pilot plant trials, statistical modelling and finite element simulations were performed. A neural hybrid force model has been developed which shows that the force model can be improved by including the theoretically calculated force and torque as an input signal.