Rapid Control Prototyping in Cold Rolling using Piezoelectric Actuators

Precise manufacturing of cold rolled, thin, and narrow metallic strips has become more important for various applications. The overall aim is the reduction of thickness tolerances of steel and copper strips to an extent of less than 1 um. To reach that goal, an experimental rolling mill is set up in which supplementary piezoelectric stack actuators are integrated. The setup of the machine is presented. It contains a real-time system for rapid control prototyping using model-based development. It enables a direct download of a controller from the simulation environment to the machine. Furthermore, bandwidth requirements for the actuators are derived from strip measurements and machine properties. The bandwidth of the actuators is identified by modeling the system's dynamics. The comparison of both actuators reveals that their complementary characteristics are suitable to compensate occurring disturbances.