System for Rational Workpiece Cutting on the Shears of Roughing Mills

The system's main functions are:

to calculate the rational plan of the workpiece cutting into slabs;
to carry out contactless measurement of slab lengths;
to calculate the slab weight;
to identify the slabs and to assign unique codes to them; the code contains heat number, workpiece (ingot) number, number of the slab obtained from the workpiece;
to generate information data base.

The system's main specifications:

type: an information-measuring system;
number of measurements per second 6
slab length measurement range 2-12 m
main error of slab length measurement 20 mm
information displaying facility TFT monitor
measurement results presentation
- crude estimate linear scale, scale factor 100 mm
- value, resolution 1 mm
channel of communication with the process control system of the factory - Ethernet
operational system QNX
system supply voltage single-phase, 220V, 50Hz;
power consumption max. 300 W

Hardware:

control cabinet with an industrial computer;
coupling devices for the connection with external devices;
system control console equipped with a TFT monitor and operator's keyboard;
three camera-recorders mounted along the processing line and providing slab length measurement after the workpiece cutting on the shears;
remote data acquisition unit, which polls the sensors of the process equipment near the shears.

The system's operation:

At the moment of the workpiece approach to the shears the system receives data about the given workpiece from the process control system, including the heat number, the ingot workpiece number, the workpiece length, width and thickness, steel quality and the settings for cutting. Based on the received data the system calculates the recommended cutting plan and displays it on the control pulpit monitor. The plan includes recommended slabs and crops lengths.

While positioning the residual part of the workpiece (after the crops have been removed) directly before the slab cutting, the system detects and displays a momentary position of the front end relative to the shears cutting line. At the moment of cutting the system determines the slab length, calculates its weight and defines its identification number. The slab data are stored in the data base and transferred to the process control system.

Help functions of the system include: automatic diagnostics of the main equipment condition; creation of the system operation report with the events, which allow to analyse the system operation (recharge cases, operator intervention, registered failures etc.); control over the video and the logic state of the process equipment sensors; checking mathematical tools operation; system parameters monitoring.

The system is used at the roughing plant of JSC "Zaporozhstal" since January, 2003. Over the period of the system operation there were no failures of the system equipment which proves the system's reliability in the rolling mill environment.

The system provides automated control over the quality metal weight and dimension parameters at the exit from the roughing mill. Thanks to the data provided for the operator the amount of process failures was reduced.

The system can be efficiently used on rolling mills of metallurgical works.