Pre-heating and thermal control of work rolls in metal rolling processes and control systems thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10875067-B2
Application number	US-201615271265-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2016
Priority date	Sep 21, 2015
Publication date	Dec 29, 2020
Grant date	Dec 29, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods for using full-width hot sprays to pre-heat rolling mills prior to processing of metal sheet or plate are described herein. The hot sprays may be individually controlled. Using hot sprays can allow the rolling mill to reach operating temperature and achieve a desired thermal crown so that metal sheet or plate may be processed immediately within tolerances for flatness and gauge accuracy. Pre-heating of rolling mills can eliminate the need of the rolling mill to operate in a transitional period of work roll heating and can increase efficiency by eliminating or reducing scrap material and mill downtime. Hot sprays may also be incorporated with existing coolant systems to provide thermal control systems for rolling mills with bi-directional temperature controls.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1. A metal rolling system comprising:
an upper work roll having an upper work roll width and an upper work roll face;
a lower work roll having a lower work roll width and a lower work roll face;
a work face heating spray device comprising a heating spray nozzle;
a heated liquid reservoir containing a heatant, the heated liquid reservoir couplable to the work face heating spray device to provide the heatant to the work face heating spray device, and wherein the work face heating spray device is configured to receive the heatant and the heating spray nozzle is positionable proximate to at least one of the upper work roll or the lower work roll to apply the heatant to at least one of the upper work roll face or the lower work roll face; and
a control system comprising a controller and at least one sensor, wherein the at least one sensor directly measures at least one of the upper work roll or the lower work roll as sensor data, wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of a work roll temperature sensor or a work roll camber sensor, and wherein the controller is configured to pre-heat at least one of the upper work roll or the lower work roll by controlling the heatant applied to at least one of the upper work roll face or the lower work roll face prior to processing a metal substrate with the metal rolling system and at least partially based on the sensor data.

2. The metal rolling system of claim 1 , wherein the work face heating spray device comprises a plurality of heating spray nozzles.

3. The metal rolling system of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of heating spray nozzles are individually controllable.

4. The metal rolling system of claim 1 , further comprising heated edge sprays.

5. The metal rolling system of claim 1 , further comprising a heatant control valve.

6. The metal rolling system of claim 1 , wherein the heating spray nozzle is a variable nozzle.

7. The metal rolling system of claim 6 , wherein the variable nozzle is configured to control the application of the heatant by adjusting a parameter associated with the heating spray nozzle, the parameter including a flow rate, nozzle aim, spray pattern, spray intensity, or a duty cycle.

8. The metal rolling system of claim 1 , further comprising a work face cooling spray device, the work face cooling spray device comprising:
a cooling spray nozzle; and
a cooling liquid reservoir containing a coolant, the cooling liquid reservoir couplable to the cooling spray nozzle to provide the coolant to the cooling spray nozzle, and wherein the cooling spray nozzle is positionable proximate to at least one of the upper work roll or the lower work roll and the cooling spray nozzle is configured to receive the coolant and apply the coolant to at least one of the upper work roll face or the lower work roll face.

9. The metal rolling system of claim 8 , further comprising a coolant control valve.

10. The metal rolling system of claim 1 , wherein the work face heating spray device is positioned proximate to at least one of the upper work roll or the lower work roll to apply the heatant to a majority of at least one of the upper work roll width or the lower work roll width.

11. The metal rolling system of claim 1 , wherein the work face heating spray device applies the heatant substantially across at least one of the upper work roll width and the lower work roll width.

12. The metal rolling system of claim 1 , wherein the work face heating spray device applies the heatant to a portion of the upper work roll face or the lower work roll face that contacts a metal work piece.

13. A rolling mill thermal camber control system comprising:
a plurality of heating spray nozzles;
a heatant reservoir containing a heatant; and
a control system comprising a controller and at least one sensor, wherein the at least one sensor directly measures at least one work roll of the rolling mill as sensor data, and wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of a work roll temperature sensor or a work roll camber sensor,
wherein each heating spray nozzle of the plurality of heating spray nozzles is individually controllable,
wherein the plurality of heating spray nozzles are positionable proximate to the at least one work roll of a rolling mill and configured to apply the heatant to the at least one work roll of the rolling mill, and
wherein the controller is configured to pre-heat the at least one work roll by controlling the heatant applied to a work roll face of the work roll face prior to processing a metal substrate and at least partially based on the sensor data.

14. A method for controlling rolling mill thermal camber, the method comprising:
providing a work face heating spray device comprising a heating spray nozzle configured to deliver a heated liquid to a rolling mill work roll; and
spraying, via the heating spray nozzle, the heated liquid onto a face of the rolling mill work roll during rolling mill start-up;
controlling the work face heating spray device to develop a steady state thermal camber on the face of the rolling mill work roll;
feeding a metal work piece into the rolling mill; and
controlling the work face heating spray in response to an output of at least one sensor, wherein the at least one sensor directly measures the rolling mill work roll as sensor data, wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of a work roll temperature sensor or a work roll camber sensor, and controlling the work face heating spray comprises pre-heating the rolling mill work roll by applying the heated liquid to the roll face of the rolling mill work roll prior to processing a metal substrate with the metal rolling system and at least partially based on the sensor data.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the work face heating spray device comprises a plurality of heating spray nozzles.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising individually controlling each of the plurality of heating spray nozzles.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising providing heated edge sprays.

18. The method of claim 14 , further comprising controlling the delivery of the heated liquid with a heated liquid control valve.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein the heating spray nozzle is a variable nozzle.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the variable nozzle controls the spraying of the heated liquid by adjusting a parameter associated with the heating spray nozzle, the parameter including a flow rate, nozzle aim, spray pattern, spray intensity, or duty cycle.

21. The method of claim 14 , further comprising cooling the rolling mill work roll face with a work face cooling spray device.

22. The method of claim 21 , further comprising controlling the work face cooling spray device with a coolant control valve.

23. The method of claim 14 , wherein spraying the heated liquid on the face of the rolling mill work roll comprises spraying the heated liquid across a majority of the face of the rolling mill work roll.

24. The method of claim 14 , wherein spraying the heated liquid on the face of the rolling mill work roll comprises spraying the heated liquid substantially across the face of the rolling mill work roll.

25. The method of claim 14 , wherein spraying the heated liquid onto the face of the rolling mill work roll comprises spraying the heated liquid onto a portion of the face of the rolling mill work roll that contacts the metal work piece

Assignees

• Novelis Inc

Inventors

• Gaensbauer David Anthony
• Carvalho Francisco
• Minniti Eduardo
• Moraes Tiago
• Eboli Carlos

Classifications

• B21B38/04

  for measuring thickness, width, diameter or other transverse dimensions of the product · CPC title

• B21B27/106 Primary

  Heating the rolls · CPC title

• B21B38/02

  for measuring flatness or profile of strips · CPC title

• B21B38/006

  for measuring temperature · CPC title

• B21B37/32

  by cooling, heating or lubricating the rolls · CPC title