PASS SCHEDULE OPTIMIZATION FOR A TANDEM COLD MILL

Pass schedules for a tandem cold mill affect the productivity and quality of rolled strips. This paper describes optimization of pass schedules, which are optimized via Sequential Quadratic Programming method. Performance functions and constraint conditions are chosen to achieve desired rolling conditions such as rolling forces, motor electric currents and reductions in thickness. Consequently, strips with small gage tolerance can be produced at higher productivity.The newly optimized pass schedules are applied to a 5-stand tandem cold mill. The results showed 3% decrease in off-gage length and 0.4% increase in productivity.