Metamodel-based optimization of hot rolling processes in the metal industry

To maximize the throughput of a hot rolling mill, the number of passes has to be reduced. This can be achieved by maximizing the thickness reduction in each pass. For this purpose, exact predictions of roll force and torque are required. Hence, the predictive models that describe the physical behavior of the product have to be accurate and cover a wide range of different materials. Due to market requirements, a lot of new materials are tested and rolled. If these materials are chosen to be rolled more often, a suitable flow curve has to be established. It is not reasonable to determine those flow curves in laboratory, because of costs and time. A strong demand for quick parameter determination and the optimization of flow curve parameter with minimum costs is the logical consequence. Therefore, parameter estimation and the optimization with real data, which were collected during previous runs, is a promising idea. Producers benefit from this data-driven approach and receive a huge gain in flexibility when rolling new materials, optimizing current production, and increasing quality. This concept would also allow to optimize flow curve parameters, which have already been treated by standard methods. In this article, a new data-driven approach for predicting the physical behavior of the product and setting important parameters is presented. We demonstrate how the prediction quality of the roll force and roll torque can be optimized sustainably. This offers the opportunity to continuously increase the workload in each pass to the theoretical maximum while product quality and process stability can also be improved.