Adaptive control in a computer control system for blooming and slabbing mills

The high rate of production desired in blooming and slabbing mills calls for a computer control system to calculate a pass schedule on-line for minimizing mill operating times by predicting roll force and roll torque. In predicting these control variables with high accuracy, three adaptive control methods are devised. These are: 1) Adaptive control to the latter passes of an ingot with use of rolling data in the former passes of the same ingot, 2) adaptive control to all passes of the next ingot with the data of preceeding ingots, and 3) adaptive control to each pass of the next ingot with the same pass data of preceeding ingots. The third is a unique method of adaptive control in a reversible rolling mill. This paper discusses these adaptive control methods and the effects of their combination. A combination of the first and third methods has revealed most practical in estimating roll force and roll torque.