The innovative distributed control system for an innovative flat rolled products plant

An integrated flat-rolled products plant that demonstrates the use of a thin-slab caster to feed 2 inch cast products into a continuous hot finishing mill is discussed. Electric arc furnaces produce the steel that flows through the continuous caster. The thin-slab product is cut and fed into a soaking furnace in preparation for rolling in a four-stand hot-strip mill. This production technology produces hot rolled coils without any slab yard, slab reheat furnace, or hot-strip roughing mills. The capital investment is much lower and the production yield efficiency is much higher as compared with the conventional methods. The multilevel distributed control system is modular and flexible to accommodate the simple slitting line as well as the more complex hot-finishing mill and the reversing cold mill. The system controls several processes.<>