Hideyuki Nikaido

Endless Hot Strip Rolling

In hot rolling, the productivity or quality of rolled strips is required to be improved and the ultra-thin rolled strips are also required. In order to achieve these requirements, it is necessary that unstable rolling is prevented, especially for head and tail ends, and that cooling of rolled strips is uniform. To meet these requirements, the completely continuous finish rolling, so called” endless hot strip rolling “,has been developed and put into a practical operation at Kawasaki Steel Corporation (now, JFE Steel Corporation) in 1996. This unique technology has realized finish rolling under an uninterrupted tension between rolling stands. As a result, the productivity, quality and stability of rolling have been improved. In addition, the ultra-thin strips with a thickness of less than 1.0mm, and strips with excellent workability by applying heavy lubrication over the full length of the rolled strips have been produced.