Development of width control system in hot strip mill. (Performance test result on actual AWC edger)

Width control in hot strip mill includes sizing of a continuous cast slab, decreasing the fish tail crop loss in the head and tail ends of rough bar, minimizing the width deviation or automatic width control (AWC). These have been studied in order to increase the material yield as well as to improve the strip width accuracy. The authors have developed an automatic width control system, which consists of a width-gauge feed-forward control and learning control to improve the width accuracy at the roughing mill delivery side by adjusting the roll opening of the hydraulic AWC edger. This paper covers the general description of the mathematical model of width deformation, the characteristics of the control system and the excellent capability of this system, confirmed by an actual edging operation in a hot strip mill.