Method and apparatus for steering strip material
AssigneeCastrip, LLC
InventorsJohn Albert Ziegelaar, Brett Gray, Hiroaki Kuwano
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Strip material is fed to a reduction rolling mill by a steering device in the form of a pinch roll stand comprising pinch rolls to which strip gripping forces are applied by hydraulic cylinder units located at the ends of the pinch rolls. A reduction mill is similarly provided with a pair of hydraulic cylinder units which are independently operable to vary the pressure applied by the reduction rolls across the strip. Sensors sense the position of the strip at a first location in advance of the pinch rolls and a second location in advance of the rolling mill. This output of sensors is fed to a controller which controls operation of both sets of hydraulic cylinder units to steer the strip.
Claims19
A method of rolling strip material comprising passing the strip through a steering device into a rolling mill having a pair of strip reduction rolls extending laterally of the strip feed direction, the steering device being operable to steer the strip as it passes to the rolling mill, applying strip reduction squeezing forces to the reduction rolls at positions spaced apart longitudinally across those rolls monitoring the position of the strip at a first location in the vicinity of the steering device and at a second location in the vicinity of the rolling mill, and operating the steeling device and varying the relative squeezing forces on the reduction rolls at the spaced positions in response to observed positions of the strip at said first and second locations.
An apparatus for rolling strip material, having
- a pair of reduction rolls to receive the strip material;
- a roll thruster to apply squeezing forces to the reduction rolls at positions spaced apart along those rolls;
- a strip steering device to steer the strip to the reduction rolls and operable to vary the feed direction;
- a first strip position sensor to monitor the position of the strip at a first location in the vicinity of the strip steering device;
- a second strip position sensor to monitor the position of the strip at a second location in the vicinity of the reduction rolls;
- and
- a controller responsive to outputs of the first and second strip position sensors to operate the steering device to vary the direction of feed to the reduction rolls and also to vary the relative squeezing forces applied to the reduction rolls at the spaced apart positions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.