Roll pass design optimisation

Hot rolling is among the most widely usedmanufacturing techniques. However, rolling mills are majorresource consumers; thus, urgent rationalisation is required inthe relevant industrial systems. Roll pass design (RPD) is aprincipal factor that determines process efficiency, productquality and resource consumption. Therefore, it is importantto optimise RPD including the selection of roll materials. Newavenues for optimising RPD are to be found by extractingknowledge buried in the vast repository of industrial records.The extracted statistical functions are then used for the nonlinearoptimisation of RPD parameters. The design of a leadingoval groove for rolling a wire rod is presented as an example,along with a discussion of the general mathematicalaspects. The presented case analysis shows how regressionanalysis and the probability density function (PDF) are usedto define principal dimensions—height and width—for theleading oval groove. These two dimensions are inferred followingthe logic of probabilistic design, and are based on anunderstanding of the trend in groove contour changes, whichoccur due to surface wear during rolling campaigns