EUROPEAN STEEL TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION DAYS 2017 - ESTAD 2017

Due to the ongoing trend towards fully automated processing lines the development of process controls is highly desirable. In the field of roller leveling a process control has to ensure a constant flatness of the processed strip. A direct measurement of the remaining curvature after leveling is difficult as the strip is suspended to external forces such as gravity or tensile stresses. Therefore a feed forward control for roller leveling is proposed which is based on a force measurement within the first bending triangle. This force measurement can be directly linked to the characteristics of the incoming strip such as the yield strength or the initial curvature. Using an FE model including a closed-loop control it is possible to determine the correct setting of the roller leveler for different strip characteristics in one simulation run. The results from the FE simulations are transferred to meta-models allowing for an online adaption of the leveling machine during the process. The concept of the proposed feed-forward process control has been successfully implemented to a down-sized roller leveler. As first results show the process control is able to ensure a constant flatness of the strip if changes in the incoming curvature occur.