Billet heating control fuel-saving solution in the rolling mill furnace

The heating of billets before rolling is conducted in the continuous furnace. The billets with different parameters are simultaneously heated in the furnace. The rolling mill performance capacity is uneven. This causes a wide range of slab heating duration. That is why implementation of power saving heating modes is subject to revision of the control system structure. The paper shows the demand on the use of separate subsystems for the following functions: forecast of the heating time for each billet at the moment of its charging in the furnace; detection of the billet location while its movement from charging to the discharging zone; modeling of the heating process for each billet to evaluate its thermal state; calculation of the optimal heating path taking into account the forecast heating time. The main elements of the structure, interrelation between separate subsystems and main principles of each subsystem operation are shown in the paper. The calculation of the optimal heating path for each billet was conducted according to the fuel consumption minimization criterion.