Experimental validation and numerical simulation of flexible and microscale roll gap control technology

Abstract

This paper proposes a new flexible and microscale roll gap control technology to obtain a stronger strip flatness control ability. According to the principle of microscale roll gap control technology, an electromagnetic control rolling mill with the function of roll profile control and large diameter ratio rolling is designed and built. To analyze the flatness control ability, a comprehensive finite element model (FEM) is established, and an indentation experiment and a rolling experiment are carried out. The simulation results show that under different rolling forces and tensions, the average quadratic crown control ability is more than 40 μm, and the average quartic crown control ability is more than − 3 μm. The control ability increment of the quadratic crown is greater than that of the quartic crown. In the indentation experiment, a stable roll profile can be achieved by PID control after reaching the target roll profile. Increasing the regulation amount can change the strip crown from positive to negative. Even under high rolling force conditions, microscale roll gap control technology can also realize a strip crown adjustment of 19.5 to 0.5 μm. Moreover, this technology can adjust the strip shape from edge waves to non-waves and middle waves in the rolling experiment. In this paper, the feasibility of using this technology to adjust the roll gap shape has been verified, and we demonstrate that the roll gap control goal of uniform transverse size distribution can be achieved.