Method of operating a rolling line for wire or light sections

A method of operating a rolling mill for producing wire or light sections, comprising the steps of:

• (a) passing an original workpiece having characterizing workpiece properties including cross-sectional shape, cross-sectional dimensions and composition in succession through a preliminary rolling line, an intermediate rolling line and a finishing rolling line to produce a rolled product, at least said intermediate rolling line comprising a multiplicity of rolling stands each having at least a pair of rolls defining a rolling gap between them;
• (b) setting the rolling gaps of all individual stands of said intermediate line to produce said product based upon inlet and outlet cross sections and composition of said workpiece, and calculated based upon a loading property of the respective stand;
• and
• (c) changing the workpiece passed in step (a) through said lines to a workpiece having at least one characterizing workpiece property different from those of the original workpiece, and modifying the rolling gap settings of only selected ones of the rolling stands of the intermediate line at locations along the intermediate line enabling tolerance-maintaining rolling of the workpiece through all of the stands of the intermediate line.