HEAT CONSERVATION BETWEEN ROUGHING AND FINISHING TRAINS OF HOT STRIP MILLS.

Technology for optimizing temperature conditions in hot strip mills includes optimizing operating parameters, optimizing mill configuration and supplementing rolling equipment with heat conservation and recuperation systems. Computer modeling of the rolling mill process showed that optimizing the operating parameters would substantially reduce the mean temperature differential between the head and tail ends of the rolled material. Temperature conditions can be improved by close coupling of the roughing and finishing trains. However, because capital costs for implementing this technology are high, it can be justified only for a new hot strip mill. The thermal panel system, in combination with optimized operating parameters, offers the most efficient solution to optimizing temperature conditions in existing hot strip mills.