Steel rolling technology has achieved such fantastic progress in the 20th century that it might be considered to have come to maturity. Actually, it remains nowadays the object of intense development that affords further impressive improvements. The progress of rolling technology is fostered by a drastic global growth of the number of rolling equipments on the order of 40% over the last 15 years. It benefits from a dedicated R&D effort based upon a large scope of scientific knowledge. The 9th Steel Rolling Conference illustrates this potent innovative approach and it offers a unique opportunity for fruitful exchanges between steel producers, equipment suppliers and steel users.

A new SSMR process to produce ultra-fine-grained hot strip is introduced, featuring: closely spaced rolling stands, continuous high speed rolling with moderately large reductions rolling, rapid interpass cooling and rapid finish rolling cooling. An ultra-fine-grained CMn steel strip (1μm) is obtained with a 700 MPa yield stress. A proper choice of the work roll diameter and a careful control of the friction coefficient should make it possible to keep the rolling force at a level compatible with the design capacity of a conventional rolling mill.

Strip width necking may be quite significant on cold rolling mills. To compensate for this unpredicted phenomenon, hot strips are often ordered with an over-width with resulting substantial over costs, for trimming in particular. Based upon numerical simulation supported by rolling trials, the main factors that effect strip width variation have been quantified: edge drop, transverse stress relaxation, thermal contraction. Potential width actuators to be implemented on industrial cold rolling lines have been identified.

The cooling of working rolls is a critical factor of the hot rolling process, to limit roll surface wear and to control roll thermal deformation. An inverse heat conduction approach and an experimental method for measurement of heat transfer coefficient are presented. Heat transfer in the sprayed area is dependent on a large number of factors, such as surface temperature, roll velocity, local pressure, coolant jets inclination and interference of multiple sprays. The experimental approach is the only reliable method to get a precise description of the cooling of industrial working rolls.

Dynamic modeling, as an effective decision support tool, is illustrated by the coupling of two continuous lines. The method stands out as general and easily transferable. Modeling makes it possible to assess the impact of various managerial decisions within a global industrial environment. Modeling is a preferred tool to extract knowledge from data bases, to formulate and to test new ideas.

In 2000, ACB decided to double the capacity of the thin slab caster and of the hot strip mill with a view to substitute ultra thin hot strip for conventional cold strip on the market. To cope with the extra tonnage, a new pickling line had to be installed. The main features of the new pickling lines that makes it possible to process thin gauges at reduced total costs, are presented.

CST has supplied 1.5 million tons of tin plate slabs to the world market since 1997 for several final applications, including D&I, Draw Cans, Double Reduction, Easy Open End. After CSTs hot strip mill was commissioned in September 2002, the Company has supplied hot coils for the foreign market tin plate production since March 2003. In partnership with its customers, CST defined criteria for slab application based on continuous casting quality events and continuous casting parameters, and their relationship with the quality results on the final product.