Upgrade of the mechatronic rolls positioning system of the piercing mill

Abstract

An analysis of the operation of the piercing mill revealed the need to upgrade the mechatronic rolls positioning system and to introduce an intelligent system to improve the quality of rolled products. The main problem is the formation of defects at the ends of the shells during rolling on a piercing mill. The excess material must be cut off and recycled because more raw materials than required are used for rolling one billet. To eliminate this problem, it is necessary to change the preload of the workpiece during rolling, thereby forming a profile that reduces the undesirable changes at the ends of rolled pipes. The mill currently has foreign equipment which is difficult to purchase. Such difficulties may lead to downtime. Moreover, the unit operates only in manual or semi-automatic mode. The possibility of replacing equipment with domestic analogs is considered. A visualization and control program has been developed. To determine the position of the workpiece in the mill and change the preload of the shell in automatic mode, a neural-network control system has been developed.