Method for setting operating conditions for continuous hot rolling facilities

A method for setting operating conditions (OC) for continuous hot rolling facilities, in which preceding and subsequent materials can be joined to each other during rolling, the method comprising:

• (a) inputting product information (PI) for the material to be rolled;
• (b) predetermining, for each material to be rolled, (i) the operating conditions (OCTe) for initial settings of the facilities for endless rolling, in which preceding and subsequent materials are joined to each other during rolling, and (ii) the operating conditions (OCIb) for initial settings of the facilities for batch rolling, in which preceding and subsequent materials are not connected to each other during rolling, based on the product information (PI) for the material to be rolled;
• (c) subsequently placing the material to be rolled on the hot rolling line, and detecting information (IRM) of the rolled material while being rolled at selected positions on the hot rolling line;
• (d) determining operating conditions (OC) of facilities downstream from the position at which the information (IRM) for the rolled material is detected based on the information detection values of the rolled material and the operating conditions (OCIe,OCIb) for said initial settings for endless rolling and batch rolling;
• and
• (e) setting the batch rolling operating conditions (OCb) to the downstream facilities in the event of switching from endless rolling to batch rolling partway through hot rolling, or setting the endless rolling operating conditions (OCe) to the downstream facilities in the event of switching from batch rolling to endless rolling.