Method and a control device for operating a combined casting/rolling installation

A method for operating a combined casting/rolling installation, comprising:

• operating a casting machine of the combined casting/rolling installation for producing a cast product, the casting machine having a mold having a primary cooling device and a guiding system with a secondary cooling device comprising a plurality of nozzles arranged along a width direction of the cast product, each nozzle of the plurality of nozzles being displaceable relative to the other nozzles of the plurality of nozzles and displaceable relative to the cast product independently of the other nozzles of the plurality of nozzles, the cast product exiting the mold and passing through the guiding system to the rolling installation;
• and
• then operating a rolling mill of the combined casting/rolling installation to produce a rolled product from the cast product;
• wherein the combined casting/rolling installation has a control device with a measuring unit and a controller;
• operating the measuring unit to detect a rolled-product property and to generate a measurement signal dependent on the rolled-product property and transmitting the measurement signal to the controller, wherein
• the rolled-product property that is detected by the measuring unit is a temperature profile of the rolled product in the width direction thereof;
• and
• obtaining a preset material/surface property for the rolled product by causing the controller to generate a control signal with an algorithm based on the measurement signals to control the casting machine and transmitting the control signal to the casting machine to set a temperature profile of the cast product to obtain a temperature profile for the rolled product in the width direction of the rolled product that results in the preset material/surface property for the rolled product, and cooling the cast product with the secondary cooling device based on the control signal by changing a distance between at least one of the nozzles of the plurality of nozzles and the cast product, and a distance between the at least one of the nozzles of the plurality of nozzles and the other nozzles of the plurality of nozzles by repositioning with an actuator the at least one of the nozzles of the plurality of nozzles relative to the cast product and the other nozzles of the plurality of nozzles independently of the other nozzles of the plurality of nozzles;
• and
• wherein the rolling mill is a blooming mill and the combined casting/rolling installation comprising a further rolling mill, wherein the further rolling mill is a finishing mill, and
• wherein the temperature profile of the rolled product is detected with respect to a running direction of the rolled product between the blooming mill and the finishing rolling mill, or downstream of the finishing rolling mill.