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ORGANIZER;CN=ESTAD 2023:mailto:info@metec-estad.com
LOCATION:Room 27
SUMMARY:Rolling of thin gauges on conventional hot strip mills
DESCRIPTION:The flat product market increasingly demands hot strip for direct further processing. Thin hot strip is applied in many industries. In general: all cold rolling applications that do not require heavy deep drawing operations and a high surface quality can be replaced by thin hot strip.
Plant owners may optimize or reduce the process steps. Cold rolling passes and/or intermediate annealing can be omitted or even be canceled completely, resulting in increased profitability and energy savings. 
There are special hot mill concepts on the market, which focus specifically on the thin strip demand. However, they come with a drastically reduced product range and weakened flexibility to react on process disturbances. 
The process control in a hot strip mill has to face special challenges arising with the production of strip with thicknesses of less than 2 millimeters. Some of the typical challenges that occur during thin-strip rolling are:
•	Ripped strip end
•	Pinching caused by unflatness
•	Steering control
•	Increased roll wear
•	Save coiling
•	Speed limitations
These challenges may cause a deterioration of the yield due to increased off-gauge lengths and the number of cobbled coils. SMS group is aware of these challenges and offers customers a “toolbox” to improve the behavior of the hot strip mill when “going thin”. The “toolbox” consists of mechanical and automation equipment and software. Beside fast mechanical actuators, a number of strip guiding systems are part of the toolbox. The strip steering control module has an important task in achieving a straight transfer bar and avoiding cobbles and ripped strip ends. Also, the operator is released from the leveling task and can focus on the rolling process. Beside strip steering control, the paper will give insights into other related topics and their impact on the production of thin gauges. Some operational results will be presented as well.

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DTSTART:20230615T092000
DTEND:20230615T094000
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