Semi continius tandem mill, Salzgitter, Germany

Conversion of an existing batch tandem mill to a semi-continuous tandem mill.

Date: June 2011
Customer: Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH, Salzgitter, Germany
Project Type: Level 1 – automation, technological controls and level 2 system

About the Project

In June 2011, pa-innovations received the order from Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH in Salzgitter, Germany to convert the level 1 automation, the technological controls and the level 2 systems for the modification of the existing discontinuous tandem mill to a semi-continuous tandem mill.

The scope of supply of pa-innovations included:

the technological controls (thickness control, tension control, speed control, flatness control),
the entire level 2 system,
the conventional controls (manipulators, media, etc.), and
the safety control

of the tandem mill.

The reason to choose pa-innovations as a technology supplier was based in the knowledge of the existing automation system and on the special skills

with regard to “flying gauge change” when changing the strip dimension as well as the weld seam rolling,
to reduce the off-gauge lengths, especially at the beginning and end of the strip for the special case of semi-continuous operation,
in the concept for inter-stand tension control,
to optimize the setup model to increase the incoming hot strip thickness by 10%,
to increase production throughput and
in the definition of the signal interfaces between the tandem mill and the new continuous entry.

For all these tasks pa-innovations was able to offer convincing solutions, which were ultimately the key to the project’s success. In addition, pa-innovations, as a PCS7 specialist, was appointed to define the PCS7-based automation solutions together with the supplier of the new entry parts and to program and commission them in a joint team.

Ausgewählt_Salzgitter und kaltwalzwerk_edited_9_zu_16

The project was carried out by a high qualified team with many years of experience in the automation of pickling tandem mills. A comprehensive integration test of the new automation solutions was carried out before the plant shutdown. The shut-down for the entire renovation was over a period of two weeks. The first rolled and saleable coil was produced two days before the plant was scheduled to start.