Cold rolling mill process optimization

Harness high level plant and process data and use it to trace and visualize the KPI’s important to your cold rolling mill, right down to individual coil or coil set. Detect and analyze deviations, identify their root cause and use the insights gained to predict and prevent faults before they affect production.

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  • Are you carrying out benchmark analysis comparing productivity, quality and yield for golden coil and actual coil?
  • Do you know which process steps (threading, reversing, unthreading, acceleration, deceleration, minimal speed, operation speed and slowdown) are having a negative impact on your productivity?
  • Have you investigated your thickness deviations including related sensors, actuators and control loops?
  • Do you understand the root causes of your exit flatness quality issues?
  • Do you know the state of your mechanics, motors, drives, and automation platform?
  • Are you unsure about which issues to prioritize to in terms of potential performance improvement

Manual monitoring is unrealistic due to the large number of data sources and process variables. Operators need more advanced tools to help them better understand the trends and inter-relations between the process parameters that cause faults and failures.

New technologies are increasingly used for this purpose, but success in digital depends on the availability of process expertise in both implementation, operation and maintenance of these tools. 

At ABB we believe a more collaborative approach is the way forward to benchmark and troubleshoot processes, to identify and counteract root causes more rapidly - improving yield and quality, productivity and margin across the value chain.

Connect with our experts to find out

Digital technology solution tailored to cold rolling processes

ABB Ability™ Data Analytics for cold rolling mills is the core digital technology solution that allows you to harness high level plant and process data and use it to attain optimum rolling set points and achieve world class strip quality and uniformity at the highest rolling speeds. Seamlessly integrating automation technologies for metals, it provides data connectivity and storage, intuitive, user-friendly dashboards, as well as an analytics engine specific to cold rolling. This solution is available as part of our service or as a stand-alone product.

As part of  Performance Optimization Service for cold rolling mills  this solution also includes continuous monitoring, real-time expert support and system maintenance delivered remotely via the ABB Ability™ Collaborative Operations for metals platform.



Intuitive dashboards

Secure, reliable data storage at customer site, real-time visualization to analyze productivity, quality and throughput, for any time duration or campaign with the ability to check any raw signals/trends from process data and investigate automatically detected issues

Powerful analytics engine

Process-specific tracking and performance optimization modules, KPIs and benchmark calculations comparing current and ideal operating conditions as well as root cause analysis in the event of a fault or poor performance

Process-specific algorithms

Continuous monitoring and analytics using algorithms for cold rolling reveal the trends and inter-relations between various process phases and parameters related to golden coil, productivity loss, thickness quality, thickness yield and more

Key process health indicators

Combining data analytics, algorithms, real-time continuous monitoring and remote support  into one powerful performance optimization service lets reveal the trends and inter-relations between various process parameters at your mill. Examples of key process health indicators include:

  • Productivity
  • Thickness quality
  • Thickness yield
  • Loop control performance
  • Correlation and frequency analysis for disturbance

Flatness KPI's are in development and additional modules can easily be added over time in line with customer demand thanks to the tool's smart modular design.

ABB experts allow you to access a much higher level of process insights, apply them to achieve and maintain optimal operations - enabling faster, more data-driven decisions. The resulting insights can even be leveraged across multiple sites to unlock further cost savings at enterprise level.

USE CASE EXAMPLES

Flexible, secure architecture with option to run in cloud or on premise

  • You, the customer,own your data which is stored onsite at your premises

  • ABB and your designated staff have 24/7 online access to intuitive dashboards

  • ABB remotely monitors dashboards and process KPI's to alert to and advise you on process discrepancies

  • This technology seamlessly integrates with ABB's data analytics platform and automation technologies for metals

Partner with ABB to accelerate your digital transformation journey

Getting to the stage where a plant can gain maximum results from digitalization demands planning a business relevant and executable path
Digital transformation in steel industry
Why ABB?
  • Experienced provider OT and IT stack
  • Third party and legacy integration
  • Domain knowledge and metals industry knowledge
  • Efficient transformation projects, focus on ROI
  • New tools such as cloud, analytics
  • Development model with partners to jointly develop solutions

>> ABB references in metals industry

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