Three-Roll Soft Reduction Device for Round Metal Products
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing soft reduction devices for round-section cast products face challenges in maintaining the product's round shape and achieving uniform chemical composition and properties, as they often result in excessive deformation and porosity due to the use of two rolls that can cause ovalization and tension in the core.
Innovation Solution
A soft reduction device with multiple soft reduction units, each equipped with three rolls arranged at 120° angles, which apply pressing forces from equidistant directions to effectively close the liquid core without abrupt deformation, ensuring the product remains round and solidifies uniformly, thereby minimizing voids and maintaining the product's rounded shape throughout the process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Force
If two rolls are used for soft reduction, then the pressing operation can be performed, but the product section becomes ovalized and the round shape is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The pressing operation is segmented into multiple independent rolling elements (at least three rolls) arranged around the product section. Each roll applies pressing force from a different direction, distributing the deformation uniformly around the circumference rather than concentrating it between two rolls, thereby maintaining the round shape while achieving soft reduction
Solution Approach 2:
The pressing operation transitions from a two-dimensional planar compression (two rolls) to a three-dimensional circumferential compression (at least three rolls arranged around the product). This spatial arrangement ensures uniform radial compression from multiple directions, preventing ovalization and preserving the circular cross-section geometry
2Volume of moving object
If pressing force is applied to close the liquid core, then the liquid section is reduced, but excessive deformation and porosity occur
Solution Approach 1:
The pressing force is distributed locally across multiple contact points around the product circumference rather than concentrated at two points. Each roll applies localized compression that collectively achieves uniform overall reduction, minimizing abrupt deformation and preventing porosity formation in the liquid core
Solution Approach 2:
The soft reduction process applies gradual, controlled pressing force through multiple rolls rather than excessive single-point compression. The distributed partial forces from each roll accumulate to achieve the desired liquid core closure while maintaining deformation within acceptable limits and avoiding defect formation
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device effectively reduces the product's thickness while maintaining a uniform chemical composition and properties, preventing porosity and deformation, and allowing for the solidification of the liquid core without excessive deformation, thus producing high-quality round-section products.
Implementation Method 1
each soft reduction unit is provided with a group of only three rolls arranged at 120° from one another... the three rolls of each soft reduction unit interfere with the advancing metal product so as to reduce the section thereof, thus closing the liquid core, by acting at 120° angles from one another so that the resulting vector of the radial pressing forces applied on the product is equal to zero
Implementation Method 2
The skin of the product begins forming in the crystallizer due to the progressive cooling to which the product is subjected... until there is the spontaneous joining of the skin in the so-called 'metallurgical cone', at which point the complete solidification of the product is achieved
Implementation Method 3
As the product travels downstream dragged by the straightening units, it is subjected to continuous direct and indirect cooling operations and this results in an increase of the thickness of the skin, resulting from the subtraction of heat from the core of the product performed by the cooling system
Data Source
AI summary
A soft reduction device (1) of a round-section metal product, having liquid or partially liquid core, for reducing the thickness of said metal product coming from a continuous casting machine, the device comprising at least two soft reduction units (2, 3); in which said at least two soft reduction units (2, 3) are arranged in series; in which each soft reduction unit (2, 3) is provided with a group of only three rolls arranged at 120° from one another; and wherein the group of three rolls (7, 8, 9) of one soft reduction unit is offset by a predetermined angle with respect to the group of three rolls (10, 11, 12) of an adjacent soft reduction unit.