Recently, the hot-rolling automation control system developed by IET, USTB based on a new domestically autonomous and controllable high-performance controller successfully completed a full-line hot commissioning on the 1700 mm hot-rolled strip production line of Shandong Shengyang Metal Technology Co., Ltd., continuously and fully automatically producing qualified hot-rolled coils!

For a long time, the core automation systems and supporting hardware and software of domestic high-end hot-strip lines have been highly dependent on external technologies, with industry pain points such as closed technology and high retrofit costs. To overcome the "chokepoint" problem, IET, USTB joined forces with domestic partners including ShandingYunke and HangtianJuheng to establish an industry-university-research-application joint research team, fully integrating the advantages and resources of all parties, completely abandoning the external software-hardware binding system, and realizing the autonomous controllability and localized upgrade of the software and hardware for the full-process automation of high-end hot rolling.

Figure 1: Some domestically produced controllers in operation.

Figure 2: Hot-rolled coils produced by the fully autonomous control system.

In this application verification, five sets of domestic high-performance control systems were mainly deployed, replacing the original roughing main controller TDC201, the finishing speed-loop and looper main controller TDC303, the finishing screw-down and shape controller TDC304 and TDC305, and the coiling main controller TDC402. All core control functions of the full-line hot rolling — AWC, AGC, MSC, LPC, BFC, SPC, AJC, and others — were put into use in the controllers!

The project team worked closely with the Shengyang hot-rolling team, strictly following the principle of "prioritizing stable production, window-based construction, and phased commissioning." All retrofit construction was embedded in the production line's regular maintenance windows, minimizing the impact of construction on production and achieving both retrofit and production without conflict. After multiple rounds of offline simulation, on-site joint debugging, and extreme-condition stability testing, the entire localized control system achieved one-shot hot-test success.

Figure 3: The IET, USTB technical team at the hot-test site.

This successful hot test verified that the new domestically produced high-performance controller is fully capable of meeting the stringent requirements of high-end hot-rolled strip lines for high-precision and high-speed real-time control. Its high-speed communication, high-speed IO, and real-time computing capabilities are fully comparable to internationally advanced high-performance controllers, achieving a qualitative breakthrough in the localization of software and hardware for high-end equipment control systems!

Going forward, the project team will, based on the engineering experience accumulated from this project, continuously optimize the rolling control algorithms and system architecture, expand the large-scale application of domestic industrial control systems in hot-rolling scenarios, and help the metal material processing industry accelerate the building of an autonomous and controllable intelligent manufacturing industry ecosystem.