Reduction of wear on guiding components in hot strip mill

ended

The hot strip mill for flat products is still key part in the steel strip production. During the last decades, the plants were optimised and became more and more effective. Intensive work was done especially on the key process steps like mill stands, cooling sections, etc. Nevertheless some parts of the plant were not that much focused, like the guiding components. The project ReduWearGuid is aimed at reducing the wear on guiding components used in hot rolling mill (pinch roll, side guides, conveyor rolls) by the application of new type of lubricants, wear protective coatings or wear resistant materials for the guiding components. The main requirements for these guiding components are high resistance against abrasive and adhesive wear, thermal impact and corrosion. The increase of wear on the guiding components is a real problem because it induces: - Plant downtimes for maintenance / repair / exchange of guiding components, - Unnecessary downtimes due to unharmonised lifetime of the guiding components, - Material defects caused by damage or by sticking of material, - Lower product dimensional tolerance (damage on strip edge, etc.). In order to develop individual solutions to reduce local mechanical and thermal wear, a multi-disciplinary approach will be used based on state-of-the-art characterisation, laboratory testing, modelling and production trials. The main objectives are the increased life time of guiding components, the reduction of production costs and downtimes and the reduction of surface defects on the strip.