Challenges

CLOSED ON: 17 FEB 2023  |  REWARD: INR 5,00,000
Reward money is paid in exchange of legally acquiring the solution, implementing it to solve the problem and meeting the success criteria. Milestones for paying the reward money would depend upon the complexity of challenge and maturity of the proposed solution, which would be discussed with the solver as soon as the proposed solution is selected by us.
Closed

Short Description:

We are looking for a design for strip steering device OR any other online system which can eliminate strip side tracking and could be accommodated within the present pickling line without making major changes to the line

Challenge Details

Hot rolled steel coil is pickled to remove iron oxide scale from the surface. The hot rolled coil dimensions should be within close tolerance to ensure smooth movement of steel sheet during subsequent pickling operation. However, sometimes the incoming hot rolled coil has poor shape (in terms of dimensions).  Especially, thicker and wider hot rolled coils (e.g. width > 1400 mm, thickness > 4 mm) exhibits more defects linked to ‘poor shape’. It is difficult to process such defective hot rolled coil in pickling line since it will have tendency to get side-tracked from the centerline of the pickling line & it will finally result in poor winding (bad build-up) of the pickled coil. Such coils are finally either reprocessed, salvaged, or rejected.

In a push-pull type pickling line (length: 140 meters, max speed: 180 meters per minute) without a strip steering device, sheet side tracking is a chronic issue. The side-tracking of coils during pickling can result in rubbing of sheet edge against the sides of pickling baths, rinse tanks, side guides and other fixed structures. This leads to edge damage of sheet (refer figure), edge bulging, bad build-up (refer figure) and scratch generation. In addition, the bad build-up coils create unsafe condition during handling.

As a general corrective measure, levelling & alignment of rolls is carried out in every shutdown. Further, the line speed is decreased sometimes to correct the strip side tracking problem. However, the problem of strip side tracking creeps in again and again.

We invite you to propose a design for strip steering device OR any other online system which can eliminate strip side tracking problem and could be accommodated within the present pickling line without making major changes to the line.

Have any query or need more clarification about this challenge?