Experience in installing a computer control system in a hot strip mill

It is highly desirable to reduce the application period of a computer control system to a hot strip mill. Completion of a hot strip mill computer control system chiefly depends upon the time when slab tracking is operative, and on the setup calculation method and its checking method. For slab tracking, many support programs were devised such as dump, on-line monitor, process input-output simulator, and mill line simulator. To confirm the efficiency of the setup calculation method, a unique checking procedure has been developed and has proven to be quite effective. With these preparations for the installation of a computer control system in Sumitomo's 80-inch hot strip mill, it took only five months in the field to put the full system into operation.