Rolling Mill Production Control for Early Quality Abort
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Solution Overview
Problem
Rolling mills face inefficiencies in producing coil-shaped end products due to variations in slab dimensions and weight, leading to non-compliance with customer specifications, resulting in unnecessary processing steps and potential rejects.
Innovation Solution
A method for controlling the production facility that models the processing of slabs through successive production units, using physical data to predict compliance with quality criteria, issuing abort signals when criteria are not met, and adjusting processing parameters through positive list identifiers to optimize product use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the slab is processed through all production units regardless of initial compliance, then the production process continues without interruption, but unnecessary processing steps are performed and rejects increase
Solution Approach 1:
The control module performs preliminary modeling and prediction of processing results before the actual processing occurs. By receiving physical data of the slab and modeling the processing outcomes of downstream production units, the system predicts whether the end product will meet quality criteria beforehand, allowing early termination of non-compliant production runs and avoiding unnecessary processing steps and material waste
2Loss of substance
If the production process is terminated early when non-compliance is detected, then material waste is reduced, but processing time is lost and production efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary modeling and prediction of processing results before actual processing occurs. By receiving physical data of the slab and modeling the processing outcomes of downstream production units, the system predicts whether the end product will meet quality criteria beforehand, allowing early termination of non-compliant production runs and avoiding unnecessary processing steps and material waste
3Reliability
If modeling and prediction of processing results is performed, then compliance with quality criteria is ensured and rejects are minimized, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control module creates a virtual model or copy of the processing chain to predict outcomes without physically processing the material. By receiving physical data of the slab and modeling the processing results of downstream production units in silico, the system determines compliance with quality criteria through simulation rather than actual trial processing, reducing physical waste while maintaining reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces physical trial-and-error processing with computational modeling and prediction. Instead of actually processing slabs through all production units to test compliance, the system uses software-based modeling to predict outcomes, substituting mechanical processing with information-based prediction to reduce complexity and waste
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
The invention relates to a method for controlling a production plant of a rolling mill for the production of a coil-shaped end product (120) from a slab (118), wherein the production comprises processing the slab (118) by successively connected production units (116), wherein, as a result of the processing by the production units (116), a strip-shaped product (120) with physical data is produced in each case, wherein the method comprises modeling the processing of a test product by several production units (116) downstream of a given production unit (116) taking into account the physical data (112).If the modeling reveals that, taking into account the physical data (112), one of the products (120) resulting from processing by the downstream manufacturing units (116) does not meet a predetermined quality criterion, the planned production of the product (120) is aborted and a signal regarding the abort is output.