Automation of a laboratory plant for direct casting of thin steel strips

Abstract The automation of a double roller laboratory plant for continuous casting of thin steel strip is described. A nonlinear state-space process model which represents the dynamics of the solidification and forming process has been developed. On the basis of the model a process controller with the force as the controlled variable has been designed and applied to the laboratory plant. This controller ensures the production of steel strip with tolerable variations in thickness. Furthermore, starting the process which is difficult to handle is treated as an optimization problem. The solution to this task is given as a nonlinear two-point boundary value problem which is solved by means of a gradient method. A multi-microcomputer system based on the AMS-Bus has been developed to handle the variety of all tasks of automation at the laboratory plant.