Backup roll contour of a SmartCrown tandem cold rolling mill

SmartCrown was a new system developed by VAI for improving the strip profile and flatness control first applied in 1700 mm tandem cold rolling mills at Wuhan Iron & Steel (Group) Corporation (WISCO). After tracing and testing, the application of the conventional crown backup roll matching the SmartCrown work roll of the production mill led to heavy and nonuniform wear, and the edge spalling of the backup roll often occurred. A 3-dimension finite element model of roll stacks was established, which was used to analyze the above-mentioned problems, and it was found that the main reason was the highly nonuniform contact pressure distribution between the work roll and the backup roll. A new FSR (flexible shape backup roll) was developed and applied in 1700 mm tandem cold rolling mills. A lot of good actual effects of FSR, such as evident improvement in profile and flatness of strips, non-occurring edge spalling, wear uniform, and remarkable decrease in roll consumption were validated by long-term industrial applications.