Abstract

Rolling mill automation systems started nearly in 1960s when the servo system was introduced to the metal forming industry. During the past decades, hydraulic control systems have found increased applications in rolling mills in an attempt to cope with the harsh environment conditions and the high power demands for metal forming. During the rolling process, both rolling speed and rolling load must be controlled in accordance with the independently varying torque that disturbs the control system. This project is concerned with the development of an electro-hydraulic control system in order to control both rolling speed and rolling load with minimum number of components. A mathematical model of a pressure compensator is constructed and a simulation program based on Matlab-Simulink is developed to simulate both the static and the dynamic characteristics of the entire control system. The control system has very good flexibilities to various rolling mill requirements, and it is very convenient to adjust due to different variable load demands. An experimental setup composed of real time control software and a hydraulic test bed is built in order to validate the compensator mathematical model and verify the control system simulation results. The simulation and experimental results are compared and discussed.