DEVELOPMENT OF ACCURATE TEMPERATURE CONTROL IN HOT STRIP MILL

A temperature control of hot strips on the run-out table due to a proper cooling plays a significant role for controlling their mechanical properties. For high carbon steels, for example, the temperature control is quite difficult because of a remarkable heat development (thermal generation) caused by latent heat of pearlite transformation. To realize required temperature control, a simplified metallurgical online model has been developed which predicts the transformation behavior and the resultant heat development. In this model, history of removed thermal energy during cooling process has been introduced instead of conventional temperature history. As a result, high accuracy has been realized on special steel without any human intervention to cooling control system.