Hot Mill Rolling Mill Models

IPACT replaced the roughing mill and finishing mill setup models for an aluminum company in South Korea.  In addition the supervisory computer HMI interface was replaced and the system was consolidated from two systems to a single system with the free system available as a bootable spare and development node.  During a later phase, the finishing mill AGC and pyrometers were replaced requiring changes to the system.  The acquisition of the product data from the business system and the reporting of production results to the business system were migrated to an Oracle database.

The customer was having problems with inconsistent setups from the existing roughing mill setup model.  The model was adding passes during the current ingot while rolling and creating random number of roughing passes.  The customer was unable to change the operation of the roughing mill setup model easily for new products.  IPACT replaced the roughing mill model resulting in more consistent and predictable operation.  New rolling practices were easily tuned and added by the practice engineer.  An offline version of the model was delivered to allow for rolling practice development in an offline mode before placing the new rolling practice into production.

The customer was having difficulties with the existing finishing mill setup model, as it was unable to compensate correctly for variations in transfer bar gauge, width, and temperature.  The existing model was table based and adding new products or changing rolling practices was very difficult.  These faults resulted in bad setups that resulted in cobbles and downtime.  The IPACT setup model resulted in the ability to increase the transfer bar by up to six millimeters for wide stock.  This ability resulted in the elimination of one of the quality defects plaguing the customer.  Post startup also resulted in less down time as a result of better cobble performance.

Both models were implemented using an Oracle database to maintain the alloy, product, and practice information.  This allowed the offline models to use the same database for rolling practice development.  The IPACT model allowed for the reduction of hundreds of practice setup files to a single practice per product based on alloy and using the product dimensions.  The database was also expanded to provide for alloy and product based cooling, scratch brush, and pyrometer setups.

The product was completely simulated at IPACT using simulated serial devices, lineup data from the ERP system, Oracle Database,  HCT Tool Kit Simulator library, and a Windows based x-ray simulator.  A program was written to read old process history data from the existing system to provide simulation for the upgraded system.

Products

GE FANUC VMIC Reflective Memory

Oracle Database

GE FANUC HCT Tool Kit

Integrated Process Automation & Control Technologies