ISSN 0967-0912, Steel in Translation, 2020, Vol. 50, No. 5, pp. 335–339. © Allerton Press, Inc., 2020.

Russian Text © The Author(s), 2020, published in Stal’, 2020, No. 5, pp. 26–30.

Productivity Optimization of Cold Rolling Mills

A. V. Yavtushenkoa, V. M. Protsenkoa, Yu. A. Belokon’a, *, and Yu. V. Bondarenkoa
aZaporizhia National University, Zaporizhia, Ukraine
*e-mail: belokonura@rambler.ru
Received April 21, 2020

Abstract—A method for determining the optimal productivity and technical and economic indicators of
modern continuous thin-sheet cold rolling mills was presented. The influence of the main parameters of roll-
ing on the mill productivity was determined, namely: rolling speed, coil weight, acceleration and deceleration
rates of the main drive motors, reduced passage speed of welded joints, time of auxiliary and threading opera-
tions, weight of hot-rolled coils before welding, and thickness and width of rolled strip. For mills of the main
types, the limiting rolling speeds were determined, exceeding which leads to a decrease in the mill productivity.

Keywords: rolling mill, rolling speed, coil weight, mill productivity, strip thickness and width
DOI: 10.3103/S0967091220050125

INTRODUCTION the coil weight of the rolled strip, to determine the

The need to expand production and improve the dependence of the mill productivity on these most
quality of thin-sheet cold-rolled metal requires the important parameters, considering other significant
improvement of existing broad-strip cold rolling mills factors: dynamic characteristics of the drive, the num-
and creation of new high-performance and economi- ber of welded joints, time of auxiliary and threading
cal ones. The most important parameters of a wide- operations, rolling mode, frequency of roll changes,
strip cold rolling mill include the rolling speed, the etc. Subsequent economic analysis of the found
weight of rolled coils, as well as the mechanization dependence will allow well-grounded conclusions
level and rolling process automation [1–7]. The pro- about the appropriate limits for increasing the rolling
ductivity and economy of the rolling mill grow with speed and the weight of coils.
increasing rolling speed and weight of coils only up to
a certain limit. A further increase in these parameters,
providing a slight increase in the mill productivity, MATERIALS AND METHODS
makes its operation uneconomical, since the growth The search for the optimal parameters of the rolling
rate of capital and operating costs outstrips the growth mill is justified by the possibility of establishing what
rate of the mill productivity. maximum rolling speeds is advisable to develop new
When designing new equipment, the economic means of automation, lubrication, cooling systems,
analysis of the accepted technical parameters for the etc., and to choose the most effective technological
mills being created and the determination of expedient parameters of equipment with optimal technical and
boundaries for their increase are of great importance. economic indicators.
The type of rolling mill and the flow chart are usually The average hourly design productivity of the mill
determined by the assortment and the specified can be determined by the formula [1]:
capacity, while the rolling speed and coil weight are
usually selected based on rough calculations. Then,  q
using economic calculations, the effectiveness of the Qav = 3600q c1 + c2(1 + k )vroll
selected initial data is estimated. This usual way of  vroll (1)
choosing, despite the accumulated experience, is not 
sufficiently objective, since it often does not consider + (c3 + c4 k ) 1 + c5 + kc6 + qc7  ,
the complex dependence and interaction of all param- vroll 
eters of the rolling mill and the rolling process. There- where q—coil weight, t; vroll—steady rolling speed,
fore, the selected data does not always provide the m/s; c1–c7—coefficients, which are determined by the
highest possible performance and the best technical following formulas:
and economic indicators of the equipment.
The purpose of the paper was to determine the c1 = 1 , m t, (2)
appropriate limits for increasing the rolling speed and cdbhf

335
336 YAVTUSHENKO et al.

Considering that
  2  
lt.s @ 1  1 + 1  v t and lt.o @  1 + 1  v t ,
2  aa ad   aa ad 
it can be practically accepted that
Qav, t/year

c3 = −lt.s and c5 = tt.o.

Number of welded joints per coil is
q
k= − 1,
q1
where q1—weight of the hot-rolled coil before welding, t.
Equation (1) is common to all multistand cold roll-
ing mills. On the one hand, it establishes a direct ana-
vcr lytical relationship between the calculated average
vcr, m/s hourly productivity, and on the other hand, the rolling
speed and coil weight considers other significant fac-
Fig. 1. Nature of the curve Qav = f(vroll) at constant coil tors. An analysis of equation (1) shows that at a con-
weight (q = const). stant coil weight q, the curve Qav = f(vroll) has the fol-
lowing character (Fig. 1): at first it rises rather sharply,
then the growth slows down; at a certain value of vroll,
where cd—density of the strip metal, t/m3; b—strip the curve has a maximum and then begins to decrease.
width, m; hf—final strip thickness, mm; Thus, increasing the rolling speed only leads to a
  growth productivity up to a certain limit.
c2 = 1  1 + 1  , s m ,
2
(3) The rolling speed at which the productivity is max-
2  aa ad 
imum is conventionally called the critical rolling speed
where aa—acceleration when driving the main drive of vcr. The value of vcr depends on the coefficients c1–c7,
the mill, m/s2; ad—deceleration when braking the which are determined by the parameters of each group
main drive of the mill, m/s2; of mills (thickness and width of rolled products, roll
  change rates, rolling cycle components, etc.). The
c2 = 1  1 + 1  v t − lt.s, m, (4) study of the influence of the main mill parameters and
2  aa ad  the rolling process on the value of Qav and vcr is given
where vt—threading speed, m/s; lt.s—length of the strip below. However, it should not be assumed that contin-
rolled at the threading speed at the beginning and at uous mills should be designed for a rolling speed equal
the end of the cycle, m; to vcr. As the rolling speed increases and approaches
vcr, the cost efficiency associated with an increase in
  2
c4 = 1  1 + 1  vr − lst.r , m, (5) rolling speed steadily decreases, since an ever smaller
2  aa ad  increase in mill productivity is provided [1] for each
where vr—reduced rolling speed when passing the unit of speed increase.
welded joint, m/s; lst.r—length of the strip rolled at a The disproportion between rolling speed and mill
steady reduced speed when the welded joint passes productivity is explained by the fact that at higher
through all the working stands, m; speeds, an increasing cycle time of each coil must be
spent on acceleration and deceleration, and a decreas-
 
c5 = tt.o −  1 + 1  v t , s, (6) ing time on rolling at a steady speed.
 aa ad  The speed vcr corresponds to a cycle in which the
where tt.o—time of non-overlapping auxiliary and rolling time at the steady-state speed tst is equal to zero
threading operations (including rolling the front and (after acceleration, deceleration starts immediately). A
rear ends at the threading speed), s; further increase in speed is generally meaningless,
since the mill will not have time to slow down to the
lst.r  1 1 
c6 =
− + vr , s, threading speed when the ends of the coil are released.
vr  aa ad 
(7)
Therefore, the first part of the curve in Fig. 1 at vroll > vcr
3600tr.c has only a theoretical character, explained by the
c7 = , h t, (8) structure of equation (1), and cannot be realized in
Qr.c practice. But even at vroll = vy, the maximum design
where tr.c—standard time for roll change, h; Qr.c— speed will practically not be used, since almost the
planned rate of the metal that is rolled between two entire rolling cycle will consist of acceleration and
roll changes, t. deceleration.

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 PRODUCTIVITY OPTIMIZATION OF COLD ROLLING MILLS 337

500 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

8 7 6 5 Let us consider the productivity dependence of a
Mill productivity Qav, t/h

400
4 tive sheet. When determining the initial parameters
300 3 and compression modes, we use the practical data of
M 2
200
1 software package [8–10]. We build graphs of depen-
100
0 20 40 60
Rolling speed vroll, m/s
Fig. 2. Change in the average hourly productivity of the
1700 four-high mill depending on the rolling speed at dif-
ferent coil weights: (1) 5; (2) 10; (3) 15; (4) 20; (5) 25;
(6) 30; (7) 35; (8) 40 t.
Consequently, the rolling speed necessary to
design a new mill or to reconstruct an existing mill can
only be given by an economic calculation. Ultimately,
we are interested in the economically feasible limit of
rolling speeds, which can be determined using a spe-
cial method [1].
It should be noted that the disproportion between
productivity and rolling speed is inevitable in the coil
production method, which is non-continuous and
associated with constant accelerations, decelerations
and stops of the mill according to the scheme itself.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop new continuous
cold rolling processes that are not associated with
unreeling and reeling.
rolling mill on the rolling speed using the 1700 four-
high mill example for rolling mild steels and automo-
Illich Iron & Steel Works (Mariupol), where this mill
is installed.
The calculation is carried out in the Mathcad Prime 6
dences (Fig. 2) and find the maxima of curves 1–8, i.e.,
vcr for each curve, and build a curve M in Fig. 2 (M—
80
maximum mill productivity).
From the graphs in Fig. 2, the value of vcr is within
38–40 m/s. It should be noted that the determination
of the average productivity must be carried out consid-
ering the torque load of the motors from the main
drive of the working stands, since it may turn out that
the selected drive is not able to ensure the strip rolling
of all the considered profile sizes at the maximum
speed. Figure 3 shows three-dimensional graphs of the
dependence covering the average hourly productivity
of a 1700 four-high mill depending on the rolling speed
and the weight of coils.
Similar calculations were carried out for other roll-
ing conditions. Figure 4 and Table 1 summarizes these
calculations.
According to the graphs in Figs. 2 and 4, when one
or another parameter changes during the position dis-
placements of the critical rolling speed, the percentage
of the mill operation time changes at an unsteady roll-
ing speed. As noted above, the critical speed corre-
sponds to such a cycle when the rolling time at a steady
speed is zero (the entire cycle consists of accelerations
and decelerations). Therefore, with a reduction in the

(a) (b)
300 120
110
200 120 100
100 90
0 80
70
10 60
50
40
20 30
20
10
30 0
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40

40 45 90 135 180 225 270 315 360 405

Fig. 3. Three-dimensional graphs showing the dependence of the average hourly productivity of the 1700 mill depending on the
rolling speed and the coil weight: (a) surface graph; (b) graph of level lines (contour graph).

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338 YAVTUSHENKO et al.

450 (a) 450 (b)

6 5 4 3
4
Mill productivity Qav, t/h

Mill productivity Qav, t/h

400 3 400
2
350 350 2
M M 1
300 1 300

250 250

200 200
10 24 38 52 66 80 10 20 30 40 50 60
Rolling speed vroll, m/s Rolling speed vroll, m/s

500 (c) 550 (d)

6
5 4 3
Mill productivity Qav, t/h

Mill productivity Qav, t/h

440 460
4 2
3
380 370 1
2
1 M
320 280
M
260 190

200 100
10 20 30 40 50 60 10 20 40 60 80
Rolling speed vroll, m/s Rolling speed vroll, m/s

450 (e) 300 (f)

M
3
3
Mill productivity Qav, t/h

Mill productivity Qav, t/h

380 260 2
M
2 1
310 220

1
240 180

170 140

100 100
10 24 38 52 66 80 10 24 38 52 66 80
Rolling speed vroll, m/s Rolling speed vroll, m/s
Fig. 4. Dependence of the average hourly productivity of the 1700 four-roll mill on the rolling speed: (a) at different acceleration
and deceleration rates of the main drive motors; (b) at different values of the reduced passage speed of welded joints; (c) at dif-
ferent times of auxiliary and threading operations; (d) at different weight of hot-rolled coils before welding; (e) at different strip
thickness; (f) at different strip width; (M—line of performance maxima).

acceleration and deceleration time in the total cycle
time, the critical speed position is shifted towards
higher rolling speeds.
This is observed, for example, with an increase in
the parameters aa and ad, which makes it possible to
directly force the acceleration and deceleration of
the mill. In the same way, when rolling a thinner
and narrower strip (decreasing hf and b, see Figs. 4e,
4f), the weight of the strip passing through the mill
per unit of time decreases. Therefore, it is necessary
to spend less time on its acceleration and decelera-
tion.

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 PRODUCTIVITY OPTIMIZATION OF COLD ROLLING MILLS 339

Table 1. Summary table of the operation’s rolling parameters of the 1700 Iron & Steel mill at different modes shown in Fig. 4
Curve number
Position on Fig. 4 Parameters
1 2 3 4 5 6
aa, m/s2 1.0 1.67 2.35 2.8 – –
а
ad, m/s2 1.19 2.0 2.8 3.34 – –
b vr, m/s 2 4 6 8 10 15
c tt.o, s 140 120 100 80 60 40
d q1, t 5 7.5 10 15 – –
e hf, mm 0.4 0.6 0.8 – – –
f b, mm 100 1280 1450 – – –

At the same time, changing the time of auxiliary
and threading operations (Fig. 4c) does not change the
relationship between the mill operation time at steady
and unsteady speeds. Therefore, the position of vcr
does not depend on the value of tt.o.
From the graph in Fig. 2, the total weight of coils q
has a significant effect on the mill productivity. With
low coil weights, the productivity increase as a func-
tion of rolling speed is much slower than with high coil
weights.
At the same time, at low rolling speeds, an increase
in coil weight does not give a noticeable increase in
mill productivity. As is known, the maximum coil
weight is limited by the ratio of its outer and inner
diameters, considering the possibility of adjusting the
reel motor speed. However, the maximum coil weight
should be determined economically.
CONCLUSIONS
The method for determining the optimal produc-
tivity, as well as the technical and economic indicators
of modern continuous thin-sheet cold rolling mills,
was presented. Calculations were performed and the
influence of the main rolling parameters on the mill
productivity was determined, namely, rolling speed,
coil weight, acceleration and deceleration rates of the
main drive motors, reduced passage speed of welded
joints, time of auxiliary and threading operations,
weight of hot-rolled coils before welding, as well as
thickness and width of rolled strip. For mills of the
main types, the limiting rolling speeds were deter-
mined, exceeding which leads to a decrease in mill
productivity.
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Translated by S. Avodkova

SPELL: 1. ok

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