Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 18441851

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ j mat pr ot ec
The effects of rolling method changes on productivity in thick
plate rolling process
C.H. Moon
a
, Y. Lee
b,
a
Rolling Technology & Process Control Group, POSCO Technical Research Laboratories, Pohang 790-785, Republic of Korea
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 156-756, Republic of Korea
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 11 February 2010
Received in revised form 27 May 2010
Accepted 27 June 2010
Keywords:
Productivity
Rolling method changes
Reduction ratio model
Thick plate rolling
Draft schedule
a b s t r a c t
We present a draft schedule scheme to estimate the productivity in thick plate rolling process. Depen-
dency of design force, design torque and maximum bite angle of a rolling mill on the reduction ratio
models were fully considered in the draft schedule scheme. Roll force and torque equations used in the
reduction ratio models were veried by comparing the measurements with the predictions. Using the
draft schedule scheme, we examined the inuence of rolling method changes on the productivity (i)
material position after the broadside passes, (ii) material position after the longitudinal passes and (iii)
the number of turn, i.e., number of times that slab (material) is rotated by 90 degree, before the broad-
side and/or longitudinal passes begin. Results reveal that the number of turn gives the major inuence
on productivity. Rolling time can be minimized if material positions after the broadside and longitudinal
passes are not xed in advance.
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In comparison with strip, shape and structural section rolling,
plate rolling is quite different from viewpoint of rolling method. In
plate rolling, slab (material) undergoes the forward and backward
journeywithnocoilingwhileits thickness is decreasedstepbystep.
To secure the dimensions (width and length) of nal plate product,
material is rotated 90 degree toward its thickness direction before
rollingbegins. Inaddition, material canbepositionedinfront or rear
of a stand to measure the material width during rolling process.
Here stand implies a unit machine with work rolls and back-up
rolls. Sometimes, stand indicates rolling mill.
It has been interesting for plate rolling process designers to
know quantitatively the effects of the rolling method changes on
rolling time since the rolling time is directly related to the produc-
tivity. The rolling time indicates the total time elapsed from the
moment that a slab is discharged from the reheating furnace to its
completion as a plate with a specied target thickness and width.
Hence, shorter rolling time increases the number of plate products
manufactured per unit time and reduces heat loss during rolling.
There have been some studies of rolling time in strip rolling
process. Liberatore (1989) studied rolling time in roughing mill in
a hot strip mill using a constraint that the length of strip deformed
at the nal pass was limited. Due to this single constraint, he could

Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 820 5256; fax: +82 2 814 9496.
E-mail address: ysl@cau.ac.kr (Y. Lee).
not fully take into account the capacity of a rolling mill. Pataro and
Helman(1999) proposedanapproachtodetermineadraft schedule
which minimizes rolling time in a hot strip mill using a fuzzy logic.
This logic was obtained from a power curve model and actual data
froma hot strip mill. This approach, however, is only suitable when
mill data are available to calibrate the draft schedule. Reddy and
Suryanarayana (2001) developeda draft schedule for a tandemcold
rolling mill to minimize rolling time by distributing the strip thick-
nesses ina harmonic series, but total pass number was always xed.
Pospiech (2002) suggested a draft schedule to minimize the total
pass number and optimize drafts in cold strip rolling. He used the
principle of constancy of roll forces in all passes which were always
less than allowable force of a rolling mill, but roll torque model
was not included in his approach. Pires et al. (2006) presented a
case study of a four stand tandem cold mill in Cosipa plant, Brazil.
Using a set-up optimization system, they calculated reduction for
each stand and demonstrated productivity improvement following
the comparison of rolling power and speed to nominal values. Note
that total pass number in tandemhot or cold strip rolling is equal to
total stand number but total pass number in plate rolling depends
on rolling method, i.e., how we distribute the pass-by-pass reduc-
tion ratios fromthe rst pass to the nal pass within the bounds of
the design force, design torque and maximumbite angle of a rolling
mill. Thus, productivity inplate rolling is inuencedsignicantly by
draft scheduling method.
Tomaximize throughput inplate rolling process, Huet al. (2006)
proposed a draft scheduling method that the total pass number is
determined by adjusting a maximum permissible reduction ratio
0924-0136/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2010.06.018
C.H. Moon, Y. Lee / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 18441851 1845
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic conguration of a plate mill and (b) plate rolling process composed of the broadside passes and longitudinal passes. Here, Ls and Ws stand for the slab
length and width. Lp and Wp indicate the plate length and width.
iteratively from an initially guessed reduction ratio. But he did not
embrace the permissible force of a rolling mill and a constraint, i.e.,
limiting values of bite angle.
In this study, we propose a draft scheduling scheme which
consists of the roll force, torque and reduction ratio model. The
reduction ratio models fully take into account the constraints of a
rolling mill such as design force of a rolling mill and design torque
of a drive motor and maximum bite angle at each pass. The advan-
tage of the reduction ratio model proposed in this study is that
the permissible force, torque and maximum bite angle of a rolling
mill was expressed as a function of a single reduction ratio, not
multiple ones. This leads to the reduction ratio be expressed in a
compact form. The reduction ratio at each pass is calculated easily
once the permissible force and torque of a rolling mill are given.
This drastically reduces the computational time for determining
total pass number and consequently rolling time since no iteration
is necessary.
Roll force and torque equations used inthe reductionratio mod-
els wereveriedbycomparingtheroll forces andtorques measured
in an actual plate mill (POSCONo. 2 plate mill) with the predictions.
With the proposed draft schedule scheme, we have examined the
effects of rolling method changes on the rolling time. The rolling
method changes considered were (i) change of material position
after the broadside passes, (ii) change of material position after the
longitudinal passes and (iii) the number of turn, i.e., the number of
times that slab (material) is rotated by 90 degree, before the broad-
side and/or longitudinal passes begin. Each of these was examined
in turn, explaining their characteristics.
2. Rolling methods in plate rolling processes
In plate rolling, slabs (250300mm in thickness, 1570
2200mm in width and 25004200mm in length) are processed
into plates (thickness of 6120mm and width of 14004600mm)
with acceptable dimensional tolerance as the slabs repetitively go
through one or two stands.
Fig. 1(a) shows a schematic of the plate rolling process. After a
slab is discharged from the reheating furnace, it is rolled to a plate
with specied target dimensions (thickness and width) through a
rolling stand. Roller tables in front or behind the stand turn the
material 90 degrees before rolling begins. Material rolled out of the
stand goes through an accelerated cooling device and becomes a
nal product following a leveling process. Hereafter once the slab
is rolled, it is referred to as material. In plate rolling, material or
slabarealways rotated90degrees, if necessary. Hence, inthis study,
turning or turn denotes that material or slab is rotated 90 degrees
toward its thickness direction.
Fig. 1(b) illustrates the plate rollingthat is dividedintotwotypes
of roll passes, i.e., the broadside passes and the longitudinal passes.
In the broadside passes, a slab is rolled until the width of the mate-
rial reaches a specied target width. Meanwhile the longitudinal
passes elongate the material to the longitudinal direction until the
material thickness reaches its target. The target dimensions of the
longitudinal passes become the dimensions of the plate product. In
what follows we describe three different rolling methods in plate
rolling, which give an inuence on the rolling time.
2.1. Material position after the broadside passes end
Fig. 2 illustrates two possible cases for the material position
when the broadside passes are nished. The initial material width
and length in the broadside passes become L
s
and W
s
since the
slab is horizontally turned. Fig. 2(a) shows a case that material is
located in front of the stand. If a measuring device for material
width is installed at the rear of the stand, one pass must be added
to the broadside passes to measure the material width before the
longitudinal rolling process starts. This leads to increase of rolling
time and decrease of the average reduction ratio in the broadside
passes. Fig. 2(b) demonstrates another case in which the nal pass
of broadside passes is nished at the rear of the stand.
2.2. Material position after the longitudinal passes end
Following the broadside passes, the material is turned again
beforethelongitudinal passes begin. Fig. 3illustrates other twopos-
sible cases for the material position when the longitudinal passes
are nished. If bending at the head and tail of material occurs in
the previous pass, the material is placed in front of the stand, as
shown in Fig. 3(a). The material with downward bending impacts
continuously the transportation rolls and gives damage on trans-
portation system. Upward bending of material makes the cooling
difcult after the longitudinal passes. The bending can be removed
by skin pass rolling which simply attens out the material. This
implies that one pass is added to the longitudinal passes before the
material is delivered to accelerated cooling process.
Meanwhile, in case that bending at the head and tail of material
occurs in the previous pass and the material is positioned at the
rear of the stand at the same time (Fig. 3(b)), two extra passes for
a realignment of material and a skin pass rolling are added to the
longitudinal passes. These denitely increase the rolling time. Note
1846 C.H. Moon, Y. Lee / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 18441851
Fig. 2. Material position after the broadside passes nish. (a) Material is positioned
in front of the stand. (b) Material is positioned at the rear of the stand. Here, Ls and
Ws stand for the slab length and width. Wp indicates the plate width.
if no bending occurred at the head and tail of material in the previ-
ous passes and material is placed in rear of the stand, no additional
pass is added the longitudinal passes.
2.3. Number of turn before the width or longitudinal passes begin
Fig. 4 illustrates a rolling method dependent on the number of
turn before the broadside or longitudinal passes begin. Fig. 4(a) is a
common rolling method to produce plate products. Aslab is turned
before the broadside passes begin. The pass numbers and rolling
time depend on the ratio of the plate width over the slab width
since the slab width W
s
is elongated to the plate width W
p
by the
broadside passes and the slab length L
s
becomes the plate length
L
p
during the longitudinal passes. In Fig. 4(b), slab is not rotated at
all before it undergoes the broadside passes. In this case, the pass
numbers androlling time are determinedfromthe ratio of the plate
width over the slab length because the slab length L
s
is elongated
to plate width W
p
during the broadside passes and the slab width
W
s
becomes the plate length L
p
during the longitudinal passes.
3. Problem formulation
To calculate the rolling time required to manufacture a plate
with a specied target thickness and width from a slab, we should
determine the total pass number. Determining the total pass num-
ber is dependent on how the reduction ratio is established at each
pass. The reduction ratio at each pass is determined using a rela-
tionship between roll force and material thickness as shown in
Fig. 5. Note that the reduction ratio at each pass is inuenced by
the constraints of a rolling mill. Therefore, the relationship should
Fig. 3. Material position after the longitudinal passes nish. (a) Material is posi-
tioned in front of the stand. (b) Material is positioned at the rear of the stand. Circles
marked with black color indicate roll pass with some draft (reduction) and ones
with empty circles stands for roll pass with no draft. Here, Ls denotes slab length. Lp
and Wp represent plate length and width.
be attained by examining constraints such as the design force of a
rolling mill and the design torque of a drive motor and the maxi-
mumbite angle of work rolls. In the following sections, we describe
three reduction ratio models, determination of the total pass num-
ber and nally calculation of rolling time.
3.1. Reduction ratio models
(i) r
F
: Reduction ratio restricted by permissible force.
In Fig. 5(a), the permissible force F
p
is determined fromthe rela-
tion, F
p
=sF
m
. Here, s means the safety factor determined by mill
operators for stable operation. F
m
represents the design force of a
rolling mill. Generally, F
m
is related to the elastic deformation limit
of the rolling mill structure such as mill housing, rolls and chocks,
pressure block and screw down device.
To derive r
F
, we use the roll force equation proposed by Moon
and Lee (2008). Note that the roll force is expressed a function of a
single reduction ratio, not multiple ones.
Hence we can compute the reduction ratio in a given pass
in a non-iterative manner once those parameters in Eq. (1) are
expressed as follows
F = Br
n
_
R
f
R
(1)
B =
o
W

RH
_
V

RH
_
l
exp
_
f
1
+
T
o
T
_
(1-a)
C.H. Moon, Y. Lee / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 18441851 1847
Fig. 4. Turning of the slab or material before rolling begins. (a) The rst turning occurs before the broadside passes start and the second turning before the longitudinal passes
begin. (b) The rst turning only occurs before the longitudinal passes begin. Ls and Ws denote slab length and width. Lp and Wp represent the plate length and width.
andf
1
= 0.00032H 0.985 +0.382
_
R
H
+
_
0.046864
_
R
H
0.51
_
R
H
2
(1-b)
andn = 0.163 +0.20735
_
R
H
0.00113
_
R
H
_
2
+
0.1
H
_
R
H
_
1.5

1354.2
H
3
+0.42[%C], (1-c)
where %C, W and r stand for carbon contents of material, mate-
rial width and reduction ratio, respectively. R
f
is the deformed
radius of the work roll calculated using Hitchcocks formulae (see
Underwood, 1950). BinEq. (1-a) is expressedas amixtureof theref-
erencestrength
o
of material, incomingthickness H, radius of work
roll R, roll speed V and temperature T of the material calculated
at each pass. l is material constants calculated through regressing
the roll forces data measured in an actual plate mill. T
o
designates
a reference temperature for the reference strength
o
. Meanwhile
variable n plays a role as a kindof hardening coefcient of roll force
when reduction ratio varies. Derivation procedure of the variable n
is given in detail in Ref. (Moon and Lee, 2008).
Replacing the force F and reduction ratio r in Eq. (1) with F
p
and
r
F
gives a reduction ratio restricted by permissible force
r
F
=
H
F
H
=
_
F
p
B
_
R
f
/R
_
1/n
(2)
(ii) r
G
: Reduction ratio restricted by permissible torque.
The permissible torque G
p
is determined fromrelation G
p
=sG
m
.
G
m
represents the design torque of the drive motor. Generally, G
m
is related to the motor power and roll speed. Similar to Eq. (1), the
roll torque in plate rolling is expressed as follows
G = Br
m
k
G
(3)
where k
G
= 2

RHexp(f
2
) (3-a)
andf
2
= 1.5686 0.003947R
0.4386 0.000763H
2
H

0.03R 10.1H
H
3
R +
_
0.004
71.94 0.18R
H
0.1
_
R
H
_
0.5
0.03
_
R
H
_
1.5
+0.0013
_
R
H
_
2
_
_
R
H
(3-b)
andm = 0.8485
_
0.5344 0.05468
_
R
H
_
+0.0055
_
R
H
_
1.5
_

_
R
H
+
1
H
_
136.9 59.9
_
R
H
_
0.5
+5.975
_
R
H
_
0.107
_
R
H
_
1.5
_
+n (3-c)
Following replacing the roll torque, G and reduction ratio r in
Eq. (3) with G
p
and r
G
, we have a reduction ratio restricted by
1848 C.H. Moon, Y. Lee / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 18441851
Fig. 5. (a) Reduction restricted by constraints (permissible force of rolling mill, per-
missibletorqueandmaximumbiteangle) at anarbitrarypass. (b) Schematic diagram
which decides the total pass number for a starting thickness to reach a target thick-
ness. Characters in means a pass number. The amount of reduction at the jth pass
is determined by H
j
=H
j
h
j
.
permissible torque as follows
r
G
=
H
G
H
=
_
G
p
Bk
G
_
1/m
(4)
Assembling Eq. (4) into Eq. (1) yields the roll force calculated
from permissible torque
F
G
= B
(mn)/m
_
G
p
2

RHexp(f
2
)
_
n/m
_
R
f
R
(5)
The force F
G
in Eq. (5) can be interpreted as a roll force at a pass
if torque limit is used to compute it. Due to

H in Eq. (5), the force

at each pass under this condition increases as material thickness
decreases as shown in Fig. 5(a).
(iii) r
b
: Reduction ratio restricted by the maximumbite angle of
work rolls.
The maximum draft H
b
in a given pass can be determined by
multiplying the theoretical maximumbite angle
2
R by a damping
parameter C
b
H
b
= C
b

2
R, (6)
where is the Coulomb frictional coefcient at interface between
thematerial andworkrolls. Ris theradius of theworkroll. Thevalue
of damping parameter, less than 1.0, is decided from operators
experience of a plate mill. Therefore, reduction ratio restricted by
the maximum bite angle in a pass is expressed as followings
r
b
=
H
b
H
(7)
where H indicates the incoming material thickness at a pass. Sub-
stituting Eq. (7) into Eq. (1) gives the force calculated from the
maximum bite angle
F
b
= B
_
H
b
H
_n
_
R
f
R
(8)
F
b
inEq. (8) canbe interpretedas a roll force whenmaximumreduc-
tionis usedtodetermine the reductionratio. The line shape for H
b
at each pass in Fig. 5 is similar to that of G
p
since material thickness
in Eq. (8) is inversely proportional to the roll force. However, its
slope in Fig. 5(a) is stiffer than that of the line, F
G
.
It should be mentioned that the equation for F
G
is a non-linear
function of thickness. The term line has been used to enhance
understanding. However, the shape of the curve F
G
is similar to
a line as material thickness decreases. It can be explained for the
curve F
b
in the same way.
3.2. Determination of the total pass number and calculation of
rolling time
To maintain a stable rolling operation and prevent the over-
loading of roll force and roll torque at each pass, the smallest
value among three reduction ratios (Eqs. (2), (4) and (7)) should be
selected. Hence, reductionratior andoutgoing thickness hina pass,
i.e., incoming material thickness at the next pass are determined by
r = min(r
F
, r
G
, r
b
) (9)
h = H(1 r) (10)
Using Eq. (10), material thickness at each pass is calculated by
a consecutive scheme with increasing pass number. Fig. 5(b) illus-
trates this scheme. The variables such as B, n, R
f
, k
G
and min Eqs. (1)
and(3) at thecurrent pass areupdatedusingknownvalues fromthe
previous pass. If outgoing material thickness, h
N
in the Nth pass is
thinner thanthe target thickness, the iterationis stopped. N is then
assigned as the total pass number. Hence, the total pass number N
and rolling time t
N
can be expressed as follows
h
N
= H
1
(1 r
1
)(1 r
2
) (1 r
N
) H
t
(11)
t
N
= t
f
+
N

j=1
L
1
V
j
(1 r
1
) (1 r
j
)
+t
p
(N 1) (12)
where subscript (1,2, . . ., N and j) means the pass number. t
f
indi-
cates the time elapsed for preparing rolling. For the broadside
passes, it is a transportation time that the slab moves from the
reheating furnace to the stand and turns in front of the stand. For
longitudinal passes, it is the time required for turning material
after the broadside passes end. t
p
and H
t
are the pass-to-pass time
(travel time) and a target thickness. L
1
and V
j
are the initial mate-
rial length and roll speed at each pass. r
j
is reduction ratio at each
pass.
3.3. Verication of roll force and torque models
Since the accuracy of the reduction ratio restricted by permis-
sible force is completely dependent on the roll force model, the
accuracy of the roll force model should be veried. We applied the
roll force model and roll torque model to the POSCO No. 2 plate
mill. In Fig. 6(a), the roll forces computed by roll force model of Eq.
(1) are compared with 65,000-actual data sets measured at POSCO
No. 2 Plate Mill.
Accuracy (error dened as the ratio of absolute difference
between measurements and calculations over measurements) is
5.4% on the average and the standard deviation of the accuracy
is 4.7%. The roll forces calculated by Eq. (1) are in good overall
agreement with measured ones.
C.H. Moon, Y. Lee / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 18441851 1849
Fig. 6. (a) Roll forces calculated by the roll force model (Eq. (1)) are compared with
the measurements. (b) Roll torque calculated by the roll torque model (Eq. (3)) are
compared with the measurements. Both comparisons are made for the POSCO No.
2 Plate Mill.
Since the correctness of this reduction ratio restricted by per-
missible torque is also dependent on the roll torque model (Eq. (3)),
we applied the roll torque model to the POSCO No. 2 plate mill as
well. Fig. 6(b) illustrates that the accuracy of roll torque is 6.3% on
the average and the standard deviation of accuracy is 5.2%. In over-
all, good agreement is noted between the measurements and the
predictions.
In Fig. 6, the data measured shows the shape of a cone. It can
be explained as follows. First the units on the x-axis and y-axis
are [MN] and [MN-m]. Thus absolute difference between measure-
ments and predictions increases even though relative difference
between them, which is usually expressed by percentage, remains
unchanged. For example, suppose we have 10% error. Absolute
difference for 20 [MN] is 2[MN]. But the absolute difference for
40 [MN] is 4[MN]. Hence we have the shape of a cone as the data
measuredincreases. Second, at therangeof higher forceandtorque,
measurement error was reducedsomehow. It might be attributable
to that the equation for materials constitutive equation which
works well inthehigher reductionratioor lower temperaturerange
was used in computing the force and torque.
Fig. 7. (a) Variations of reduction ratio at each pass on MPB (b) Variations of the
rolling time in terms of MPB. The abbreviation MPB indicates materials position
after the broadside passes in front of or behind the stand. The concept of MPB is
applicable to the broadside passes only (see Fig. 2).
4. Results and discussion
We combined Eqs. (1)(12) properly and code them into a For-
tranprogramso that we couldcompute the rolling time of anactual
plate mill with three rolling methods. Table 1 lists the material
dimensions, capacities of a rolling mill and parameters used in the
analysis of plate rolling. In the following, we examine the reduction
ratio and rolling time variations caused by modications to rolling
methods including (i) the material position after the broadside
passes end, (ii) the material position after the longitudinal passes
end and (iii) the number of turn before the width or longitudinal
passes begin.
4.1. Effect of material position after broadside passes
Fig. 7(a) shows the variation of reduction ratio per pass in
terms of incoming material thickness at each pass when MPB is
determined in advance and when it is not. The abbreviation MPB
indicates the material position after the completion of the broad-
Table 1
Material and slab dimensions, rolling mill capacity and rolling parameters used in this study.
Material and slab dimensions - Carbon-manganese steel (0.175% C-Mn steel)
- Discharging temperature from reheating furnace =1190

C
- Slab dimensions
Thickness, H
S
=0.302m, Width, W
S
=2.2m, Length, L
S
=3.539m
- Target dimensions of plate
Thickness, Hp =0.08732m, Width, Wp =4.106m, Length, Lp =6.558m
Rolling mill capacity - Design force, Fm =64.68MN
- Design torque, Gm =6.74MN-m
- Safety factor, s =0.9
Rolling parameters - Radius of work roll, R=0.5825m
- Roll speed, V=2.1m/s
- Bite angle limit, H
b
=0.04m
1850 C.H. Moon, Y. Lee / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 18441851
Fig. 8. (a) Variations of reduction ratio at each pass on MPL. (b) Variations of the
rolling time on MPL where MPB is determined in advance. The abbreviation MPL
indicates the material position after the longitudinal passes. The concept of MPL can
be applicable to the longitudinal passes only (see Fig. 3).
side passes in front of or behind the stand (see Fig. 2). Whether
MPB is determined in advance or not, a target thickness after the
broadside passes end, i.e., initial material thickness before the lon-
gitudinal passes begin, is not changed. If a device measuring the
material width after the broadside passes is installed in front of
the stand only, the material should be positioned in front of the
stand. This situation corresponds to the case where MPB is deter-
minedbeforehand. Note if the device measuring the material width
is installed both in front of and in the rear of the stand, one need
not to determine MPB. If MPB is not determined in advance, mate-
rial can be turned at any position. Therefore, the average reduction
ratio for the broadside passes increases from 9.8% to 11.6%. As a
result, the total number of the broadside passes decreases fromsix
to ve, as shown in Fig. 7(a).
The rolling time for the broadside passes includes the time that
the slab discharged out of the reheating furnace translates to the
stand and the one that the slab turns before rolling begins and the
rolling time required for the broadside passes. In this study, the
times for the slab to translate and turn are set as 50s and 30s,
respectively. Fig. 7(b) illustrates that if MPB is not determined,
the rolling time for the broadside passes decreases from 116.9s
to 109.5s. This is because the total number of the broadside passes
decreases. Results demonstrate that we can decrease the rolling
time by 4.1% if we do not decide MPB in advance.
4.2. Effect of material position after longitudinal passes
After the longitudinal passes, material canbe positioned infront
of or behind the stand (see Fig. 3). Fig. 8(a) illustrates the depen-
dency of the reduction ratio on MPL. The abbreviation MPL stands
for material position after the longitudinal passes.
The denition of MPL is applicable to the longitudinal passes
only. Hence, thevariationinreductionratiofor thebroadsidepasses
is not affected by MPL at all. In the case where MPL is not deter-
mined, material can be placed at any position, i.e., in front of or
in the rear of the stand. This results in an increase of the average
reduction ratio for the longitudinal passes from 14.3% to 18.7%. As
shown in Fig. 8(b), the rolling time for the longitudinal passes is
reduced from 65.5s to 60.4s. This outcome indicates that if MPL is
not determined in advance, we can a give heavy reduction in the
longitudinal passes and thus reduce the rolling time by 2.8%.
4.3. Effect of the number of turn
The total reduction during rolling depends on NT (number of
turn, i.e., that slab (material) is rotated by 90 degree, before the
broadside and/or longitudinal passes begin) and the ratio of the
plate width over the slab width (or length) since the slab length is
different from its width. Plate rolling simulation using the dimen-
sions of slab and plate given in Table 1 yields the ratio as follows;
The ratio of the plate width to the slab width is 1.87 when NT is 2
(Fig. 4 (a)) and the ratio of the plate width to the slab length is 1.16
when NT is 1 (Fig. 4 (b)). If this ratio is high, much more reduction
during the broadside passes is required for the material to reach
the plate width and leads to the decrease of total reduction during
the longitudinal passes.
Fig. 9shows that the reductionratioper pass andthe rollingtime
are affected by NT. Fig. 9(a) illustrates that the total pass number
in both the broadside and longitudinal passes decreases from 10
to 8 when NT is changed from 2 to 1. This is because the material
thickness to be reduced, i.e. (H
s
H
1
), in the broadside passes is
139.5mm for NT=2 and 39.3mm for NT=1. H
s
and H
1
denote the
slab thickness and material thickness just before the longitudinal
passes begin. Hence, only two passes are required in the broad-
side passes when NT=1. Meanwhile, the material thickness to be
reduced, i.e. (H
1
H
p
), in the longitudinal passes is 75.2mm for
NT=2 and 175.4mm for NT=1. H
p
refers to the target thickness of
plate. For this reason, six passes are required in the longitudinal
passes when NT=1.
Fig. 9. (a) Variations of reduction ratio for the broadside passes and the longitudinal
passes when NT=1 or 2. (b) Effect of NT on the rolling time. The abbreviation NT
indicates the number of turn, i.e., the number of times that slab (material) is rotated
by 90 degree, before the broadside and/or longitudinal passes begin (see Fig. 4).
C.H. Moon, Y. Lee / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 18441851 1851
Fig. 9(b) illustrates that when NT is changed from 2 to 1, the
rolling time for the broadside passes decreases from 116.9s to
57.8s. Meanwhile, rolling time for the longitudinal passes increases
from 65.5s to 78.5s. Note that cutbacks in rolling time for the
broadside passes are signicant incomparisonwiththe rolling time
for the longitudinal passes. This is because the time for turning the
material is reduced by 30s. Thus, the total rolling time is reduced
from182.4s to 136.3s. Consequently it can be said that the produc-
tivity in Fig. 4(b) is better than that in Fig. 4(a) by 25.2%. If the ratio
of the plate width over the slab width increases, rolling method in
Fig. 4(b) has the advantage of the productivity.
5. Concluding remarks
This work presents a draft schedule scheme for determining
the total number of pass in plate rolling, which is non-iterative in
computation and its effect on rolling time, i.e., productivity. Three
reduction ratio models were proposed and coupled with the draft
schedule scheme. The validity of roll force and torque models used
in the reduction ratio models was veried through comparing the
measured roll forces and torques with the predictions. The pro-
posed draft schedule scheme has been applied to the POSCO No. 2
plate mill and the rolling time, i.e., productivity variations depen-
dent on the rolling method was investigated. Conclusions are as
follows.
(1) The productivity can be improved about 4.1% if MPB (Mate-
rial Position after the Broadside passes) is not determined in
advance and 2.8% if MPL (Material Position after the Longitudi-
nal passes) is not determined in advance.
(2) Productivity is inuenced by NT (Number of Turn, i.e., the num-
ber of times that material is rotated by 90 degree, before the
broadside and/or longitudinal passes begin). Eliminating a step
for turning the slab before rolling (NT=1) increases productiv-
ity by about 25.2%. Hence, NTis the most dominant factor which
inuences the rolling time.
(3) The proposed draft schedule scheme linked with the reduction
ratio models may be useful for the plate mill designers to esti-
mate the basic plate mill specication if a revamping of a plate
mill is taken into consideration.
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