Method and apparatus for providing improved automatic gage control setup in a rolling mill
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorDonald J. Fapiano
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for determining the initial opening of a pair of opposed work rolls utilized to reduce the thickness of a metal workpiece provides that selected readings of the roll separation force occasioned by passage of the workpiece through the rolls on a next preceding pass are utilized to determine the initial roll opening setting for the next pass of the workpiece between the rolls. The readings selected differ in accordance with a determination of whether or not the next pass is to employ automatic gage control.
Claims8
In a metal rolling mill for reducing the thickness of a metal workpiece by successive passes of the workpiece through opposed work rolls, said mill being of the type including automatic gage control which may be rendered active on a selective basis during prescribed ones of said passes, an improved system for determining the initial roll openings for each of said passes after the first including:
- (a) means for measuring the roll separation force during a pass of the workpiece between the rolls and for providing force signals indicative of the instantaneous values of said force;
- (b) first store means for periodically storing the values of said force signal while a first control portion of said workpiece is between said rolls;
- (c) second store means for periodically storing the value of said force signal while a second control portion, including the trailing end of said workpiece, is between said rolls;
- and,
- (d) computation means responsive to selected values stored in said first and second store means to calculate the roll opening setting for the next pass of the workpiece between said rolls, said computation means employing only those values stored in said first store means when the mill is not to be operated under automatic gage control and employing the values stored in said second store when the mill is to be operated with auomatic gage control.
In the operation of a metal rolling mill of the type having opposed rolls for reducing the thickness of a metal workpiece passed therebetween and further including selectively employed automatic gage control, a method of determining the opening at which said rolls are set prior to the initiation of a rolling pass comprising the steps of:
- (a) measuring the force tending to separate the rolls while the workpiece is passed between said rolls;
- (b) producing a plurality of signals each proportional in value to the instantaneous magnitude of said force at periodic times while said workpiece is passing between said rolls;
- (c) storing, in a first store, the value of those signals corresponding to a first control portion of said workpiece;
- (d) storing, in a second store, the values of those signals corresponding to a second control portion of said workpiece, said second control portion including the trailing portion of said workpiece as it leaves said rolls;
- (e) determining whether or not the next rolling pass is to employ automatic gage control;
- and,
- (f) determining the initial roll opening setting for the next pass of the workpiece through the rolls using, selectively, the values stored in the first and second stores in accordance with said determination of whether or not the next rolling pass is to employ automatic gage control.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.