Control of a continuous tandem cold metal rolling process

The continuous tandem cold rolling of metal strip is a complex multivariable process whose control presents engineering challenges in addition to those generally encountered in the case of the stand-alone cold rolling process. In this paper it is shown that a newly developed and highly successful technique which uses the state-dependent Riccati equation method for controlling the stand-alone process also has a similar potential when applied in the continuous case, where the weld passage occurs at reduced speed and the product characteristics change quickly on the fly.