NSF Award
9961275
This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a new understanding of rolling mill chatter. Rolling mill chatter is a vibration problem limiting the throughput of nearly all metal rolling operations. In addition, associated sensitivities of the system to external vibration forces necessitate costly maintenance programs to minimize these forces. The root cause of the problem is a destabilizing feedback mechanism, which renders the system extremely sensitive to any excitation. In the limit, the rolling process is unstable and self excited. The extension/tension relationship of the interstand steel sheet is a critical component of the feedback path. Phase I will explore previously overlooked aspects of sheet behavior to modify the feedback control path such that the feedback is a stabilizing rather than destabilizing effect.<br/><br/>This technology has wide potential application to hot and cold rolling processes in the steel industry, aluminum industry, tin mills, finishing mills, and plastics processing.
