Optimization of Short Stroke Control Preset for Automatic Width Control of Hot Rolling Mill Original Research Article

Automatic width control is a key issue in hot strip rolling process. The edge rolling has been widely used in the roughing stand of hot strip mill to control the width of the slab. However, the edge rolling and consequent horizontal rolling will cause a significant width change in the head part and tail part of the slab, which have to be trimmed before the finishing stands. Based on the width reduction deformation curve of the head and tail along the longitudinal direction of slab, the short stroke control (SSC) technology has been developed to overcome this problem. The finite element method has been used to simulate the unsteady edge rolling process. Three short stroke control curves have been compared in order to obtain the best width control result. The optimized short stroke control curve has been applied to the automatic width control system of industrial hot rolling mill, and good performance is obtained.