VCR back-up roll and negative work roll

contour design for solving roll spalling and

transfer bar profile problems in hot strip mill
X. D. Wang*1, F. Li1, B. H. Li1, G. S. Zhu1, B. Li2 and B. H. Zhang2
During the first year of production in the 2250 mm hot strip mill of Qian’an Iron and Steel Company
of Shougang Steel Corporation, roll spalling and broken rolls were frequent occurrences,
especially on the second stand of roughing mill (R2), and resulted in enormous economic losses.
In addition, improvements to strip shape were required. One of the factors resulting in strip shape
defects after finish rolling is that the transfer bar usually had an unsound profile such as a large
wedge, camber or negative crown after roughing rolling. To solve these problems, a variable
contact back-up roll contour curve with six order of polynomials and negative crown contour was
designed and applied to the back-up roll and work roll of roughing mill stands R1 and R2 instead
of a conventional flat roll contour. After the application, roll spalling, crown and wedge quality of
the transfer bar and strip quality all improved.
Keywords: Hot rolled strip, Back-up roll, Roll contour, Strip shape, Roll spalling, Roll contour configuration

Introduction crown (HC) technology, which was developed jointly by

During hot strip rolling, rolls undergo a severe and
complex working condition of repeated heating and
cooling. Rolls are very expensive, and spalling
and broken roll accidents should be avoided; however,
roll spalling failures sometimes take place in the early
period of a new hot strip mill. The reasons leading to roll
spalling are mainly caused by: roll materials,1–3 stress
concentration fatigue and overload,4,5 accident during
steel rolling,5 and roll use process rules and manage-
ment.6 Most research has been concentrated on the
spalling mechanism7–9 and improving measures on roll
material, manufacture, use and management, and
inspection technology to solve the roll spalling problem
in hot strip mill.
Increasing the quality of strip crown and flatness
during hot rolling is also one of the most challenging
technical tasks, because a highly waved or cambered
strip might cause damage to the equipment or reduce
production. There are many factors affecting strip shape
control, and all of them can be related to rolling force
fluctuation and roll contour change during hot rolling.
Roll contour changes, including grinding, thermal and
wear contours of work and back-up rolls, have a great
influence on strip shape control.10
Roll contour and configuration technology is one of
the effective tools to improve strip shape quality. High
1
Research Institute of Techonolgy, Shougang Steel Corporation, 69
Yangzhuang Dajie, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100043, China
2
Qian’an Iron and Steel Company of Shougang Steel Corporation, Binhe
Village, Yangdianzi Town, Qian’an 064404, China
*Corresponding author, email x_d_wcumt@163.com
the Hitachi Company and Nippon Steel Corporation in
the 1970s, is a typical roll configuration.11,12 However,
small diameter work rolls adopted in the HC mill lead to
complex deflection and to more complex wave defects of
the strip under the function of work roll bending force.
To further improve strip shape control capability of the
HC mill, immediate roll bending is added, namely the
universal crown (UC) mill.13 Although HC mills are
common in hot and cold strip mills, it has a disadvan-
tage in that axial shifting of work or immediate roll may
result in high roll pressure sharp between the rolls which
may lead to uneven roll wear or roll spalling.
In the 1990s, VAI CLECIM developed dynamic shape
roll technology,14 whose control idea and structure are
the same as NIPCO.15 It has a strong strip shape control
capability for routine edge waves and central buckles,
even for high order form shape defects. However, this
device also has a very complex mechanical and hydro-
system structure, so it is not widely used. Another
typical back-up roll technology is variable crown (VC)
roll, which was developed by Sumitomo Metal in the
1970s.16,17 A VC roll consists of an arbour and sleeve,
and between them is an oil chamber filled with high
pressure oil. Roll profile can be controlled through
changing oil pressure and then change roll-stack
deflection by influencing contact stress distribution
between rolls. As with dynamic shape roll, VC has a
very high requirement on the property of the sleeve, hot
assembly and sealing, and these will increase the
difficulty in actual operation.
Another new type of back-up roll having similar
structure as the VC roll, consisting of a sleeve, an arbour
and a phase angle adjusting system for arbour, was

ß 2010 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute
Received 16 September 2009; accepted 9 March 2010
DOI 10.1179/030192310X12700328925949 Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8 633
Wang et al. VCR back-up roll and negative work roll contour design

1 Layout of 2250 mm Hot Strip Mill of Qian’an Iron and Steel Co., Ltd of Shougang Group

developed and laboratory evaluation was made in a pilot

rolling mill.18 Besides the special structured rolls
mentioned above, there are also some others such as
step back-up roll,19 adjustable stepped roll (ASR) and
variable barrel length back-up roll (VBL) technologies.10
Alternatively, some back-up rolls with special grind
profiles can fulfill some of the function of these special
rolls or roll stack without any complex structure change.
Variable contact roll (VCR), an advanced strip shape
control system developed jointly by the University of
Science and Technology Beijing, Wuhan Iron and Steel
Corporation and Baoshan Steel Corporation, has a
special roll profile with a higher order polynomial.20,21
This contour on the back-up roll can enable the contact 2 Typical example of roll spalling
length between work and back-up rolls to adapt to the
strip width rolled. This can reduce or eliminate the
adverse contact zone at the roll edge, enhance the
resistance of the roll gap to the fluctuation of rolling
force, and provide the roll gap with good rigidity and
flexibility. Since the invention of VCR in the 1980s, it
has been widely used on back-up rolls in cold strip mills
in China.22 However, its application on a hot strip mill
back-up roll is still under development, and much work
is still needed, especially for 2250 mm hot strip mill.23–27
In this work, instead of conventional flat roll shape, a
variable contact back-up roll contour (VCR) with a six 3 Edge relief type used in conventional flat back-up roll
order polynomial was designed and applied on roughing
mill stand R2 and the finishing mill stands, and negative
RM215 profile gauge meter and a ROMETER F200
crown contours for work rolls configured with VCR
flatness gauge meter were installed at the exit of finishing
back-up roll were also used in roughing mill stands R1
train to measure and record the profile and flatness
and R2.
values of strip.
During 2007 and early 2008, premature roll failures
Roll contour design and roll contour such as spalling happened many times especially on
configuration roughing mill stand R2, and led to big economical
The hot strip mill, designed for an annual production of losses. A typical example is shown in Fig. 2.
4?5 Mt, was commissioned at the end of 2006. Main There was no roll contour on the back-up rolls when
production includes steels for structurals, automotive, the mill was designed, and a conventional flat back-up
deep drawing, welded pipe, pipeline, weather resisting, roll with edge relief was used during early production.
ship plate, strip for cold rolling, boiler and pressure There are generally three kinds of roll edge relief: line,
vessels. This hot strip mill, see Fig. 1, consists of three step shape and circular arc. The third kind of edge relief
walking beam reheating furnaces, high pressure water shown in Fig. 3 was used on back-up rolls in the
roughing descaler, slab size presser, one 2-high reversing roughing and finishing mills of this hot strip mill, and
roughing mill (R1), one 4-high reversing roughing mill the detailed parameters A and B were 200 and 2 mm,
(R2) with a edge rolling mill at its entrance (E2), coil respectively.
box, crop shear, high pressure water finishing descaler, Generally, the service term of one new ground back-
six stands of 4-high finishing mills, run-out table up roll is two to three weeks, so a significant non-
cooling, two downcoilers. Continuous variable crown uniform wear on back-up roll through its entire service
(CVC) roll contouring, work roll contour, a 1500 kN term was generated when the conventional flat back-up
bending force operated on the work roll chocks and a roll was used. Since back-up rolls work nearly at
long work roll shift stroke of 150 mm are adopted as the ambient temperature, their thermal profile can be
three major measures for controlling strip shape. A ignored. The reason leading to non-uniform wear on a

634 Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8


4 VCR back-up roll contour curves for hot strip mill
flat back-up roll is that there exists uneven contact stress
distribution between work and back-up rolls. For a flat
roll stack, contact stress concentration usually is located
at the roll edge, and this will result in work hardening
and even microcracks. If these cracks are not removed
thoroughly, and they will propagate into substrate of
roll, eventually roll spalling will occur.
At the same time, for this new established hot strip
mill there was another urgent task to be fulfilled, namely
increasing strip shape quality. The defects complained of
from customers were mainly camber, waves, wedge and
unsound profile.
VCR back-up roll contour design
One kind of variable contact back-up roll contour curve
(VCR) with a six order of polynomial was designed
considering different working conditions especially roll-
ing force and three main width gauges to be rolled, and
shown as in Fig. 4. The design idea of VCR back-up roll
contour is that the contact length between work and
back-up roll can be changed with the width of slab rolled
and the rolling force. This variable contact length
between work and back-up roll can make contact stress
distribute evenly between them and then can avoid
fatigue crack generation at roll edge. At the same time,
this can increase cross-rigidity of loaded roll gap and the
shape control capability.
The function of VCR back-up roll contour curve can
be expressed as follows
R(x)~a0 za1 xza2 x2 za3 x3 za4 x4 za5 x5 za6 x6
x[½{1,z1 (1)
where x and R are normalised coordinate of barrel
length of back-up roll in mm and relative difference of
roll radius in mm respectively; a0 to a6 are seven
coefficients.
Work roll contour design
One of the factors resulting in strip shape defects is that
the transfer bar for the finishing mill usually had an
unsound profile such as a large wedge, camber or
negative crown. In order to control the shape of the
transfer bar and improve the stability of rolling, negative
crown contour was applied on work rolls of the four-
high roughing mill stand R2 and two-high roughing mill
stand R1. These work rolls have negative crowns from
20?05 to 20?3 mm which can enhance the alignment
and stability during slab rolling. In R2 stand, config-
uration of negative crown work roll contour and VCR
back-up roll contour was carried out. Negative crown
contour curve is a second order of polynomials, shown
Wang et al. VCR back-up roll and negative work roll contour design
5 Negative crown contour curve for work roll of R1 and
R2
in Fig. 5.
R2 (x)~b0 zb1 xzb2 x2 (2)
where x and R2 are normalised coordinate of barrel
length of work roll in mm and relative difference of roll
radius in mm respectively; b0 to b2 are three coefficients.
Performance analysis of configuration of
VCR back-up roll and negative crown
work roll
After finishing the design work of the VCR back-up roll
contour and negative crown contour, performance
analysis of that roll shape configuration was carried
out. In this work, roll stack deflection calculations were
all carried out using the two-dimensional thickness
variable finite element method,28 as shown in Fig. 6,
which has features of high precision and rapid calcula-
tion speed.
From the calculation results, this configuration can
realise the functions of keeping uniform contact stress
between rolls, decreasing the sharp contact stress
between back-up and work rolls, reduce roll consump-
tion resulting from roll fatigue and reducing production
costs compared with conventional flat roll practice. At
the same time, it can also raise the cross-rigidity of the
loaded roll gap and enhance the strip shape control
capability of rolling mill. Therefore, a good roll contour
curve is very important for roll life and strip shape
control.
Contact stress distribution between back-up
and work rolls
Contact stress distribution between work and back-up
rolls reflects the contact condition, and the index for
evaluating that between rolls is expressed as follows
pmax
bp ~ (3)
pavg
where bp, pmax and pavg are unevenness degree of contact
stress distribution between rolls representing the cap-
abilities for resisting uneven wear along the axial
direction of the roll and spalling, the maximum value
and the average value of contact stress between rolls
along the barrel length. Uniform contact stress distribu-
tion between rolls along the axial direction can benefit
from decreasing the stress concentration and reducing
the danger of fatigue damage. The ideal back-up roll
Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8 635
Wang et al. VCR back-up roll and negative work roll contour design

6 Two-dimensional thickness variable finite element method model for four-high rolling mill

contour curve can provide an even distribution of the

contact stress distribution between work and back-up
rolls.
Most positions of spalling were located at the roll
edge. Contact stress distribution between conventional
flat back-up roll and work roll was analysed using two-
dimensional thickness variable finite element method
model for the four-high rolling mill mentioned above,
and the result is shown in Fig. 7. There are contact stress
concentrations between work and back-up roll at the
roll edges when both of work roll and back-up roll are
conventional flat rolls. It is evident that contact length
between work and back-up roll cannot adapt with the
width of strip rolled, and the pressure concentration
positions are located at the same places for difference
slab width, i.e. there is an adverse contact zone at the 7 Contact stress distribution calculation results between
roll barrel edge place beyond strip width, which results conventional flat work and back-up roll
in a sharp increase in contact stress leading to work
hardening and worse wear at roll edge. Therefore, this
will lead to local heavy roll wear, serious fatigue cracks
at the roll edge, and, ultimately, roll spalling if they were
not removed thoroughly during roll grinding.
Figure 8 is the calculation results of contact stress
distribution between VCR back-up roll and negative
crown work roll. Compared with Fig. 7, it is seen that
the contact stress can be decreased significantly and the
contact stress distribution between rolls is more even.
VCR back-up roll can also prolong the life to work and
back-up rolls because of the lower contact stresses.

Cross-rigidity of loaded roll gap

The cross-rigidity of loaded roll gap can be defined as
follows
ks ~DQs =DCg
where, ks, DQs and DCg are cross-rigidity, variation of
rolling force per unit width and variation of loaded roll
gap crown respectively. This parameter reflects the
resistivity of loaded roll gap to the rolling force
fluctuation. Obviously, the larger the cross-rigidity of
loaded roll gap, the less the influence of rolling force
fluctuation on the loaded roll gap, and the more stable
the rolled strip shape quality. The calculation results of
cross-rigidity of loaded roll gap when conventional flat
back-up roll, worn flat roll and VCR back-up roll are
used are shown in Fig. 9. It is shown that the VCR back-
up roll has a greater cross-rigidity of loaded roll gap
8 Contact stress distribution calculation results between
variable contact back-up roll and negative crown work
(4) roll
than two others, hence can make the contact stress
distribution between rolls more uniform and hence
maintain better strip shape.
Application of roll contour and
configuration technology
Based on the comprehensive consideration of strip
specifications, steel grade and wear conditions of work
and back-up rolls, a VCR back-up roll contour curve was
designed, which can be seen in Fig. 4. To minimise trial

636 Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8


9 Cross-rigidity analysis results of loaded roll gap
10 Wear contour of conventional flat back-up roll
11 Wear contour of VCR back-up roll
work impact on mill production initial trial work was
carried out on F2 stand of finishing mill between March
and May 2008. After these single stand applications the
technology was transferred to R2 stand after which roll
spalling failure induced by stress concentration ceased.
For improving shape quality of transfer bar mainly
including negative crown, wedge and large camber
defects, negative crown work rolls were applied in R2
and R1 instead of flat work rolls. Based on transfer bar
profile measurements after roughing rolling and wear
contour of work roll of roughing mill, negative crown
work roll configured with VCR back-up roll has fulfilled
the aim for improving shape quality of the transfer bar.
Improvement effect on wear contour of back-up
roll
Before the VCR back-up roll was adopted the conven-
tional flat back-up roll had a box shape wear contour
Wang et al. VCR back-up roll and negative work roll contour design
after its two weeks service operation. A typical wear
result is show in Fig. 10. There is uneven wear and there
is local heavy wear near the roll edge region where strip
edge is rolled.
After VCR back-up roll contour technology was
adopted the uneven wear disappeared and an even wear
roll contour was acquired as shown in Fig. 11. TH, G
and W represent theoretical design, ground and wear
contours of VCR back-up roll respectively. It can be
seen that the VCR back-up roll has a feature of self-
maintaining roll shape because its wear contour is
similar with the designed and ground contours. That can
make it keep a well working condition through its
working term not like flat back-up roll.
Improvement of roll edge surface condition
Figure 12, typical photos of work roll surface conditions
after one term service when a flat contour was adopted
on the back-up roll of R2, shows that there is one
obvious crack concentration band of 15 to 20 mm in
width around roll diameter about 120 mm from the roll
edge. If these cracks were not thoroughly removed
during grinding process, they will propagate into the
substrate of work roll, and eventually roll spalling will
occur. After VCR back-up roll was adopted in R2 stand
microcracks no longer occurred and the improvment can
be seen from Fig. 13.
Improvement of roll surface hardness
Back-up roll surface hardness measurements are carried
out after a roll is pulled out from R2 and recorded as
routine work for checking the roll condition. Hardness
comparison was made between before and after VCR
back-up roll was adopted, as shown in Fig. 14. From the
result we can see surface hardness of back-up roll has an
obvious decrease after VCR back-up roll contour was
used, and there are virtually no hardness results over 70
Shore at the roll edge. This illustrates a more uniform
contact stress distribution between work and back-up
roll when VCR back-up roll was adopted in R2.
Improvement transfer bar shape
Transfer bar measurements before plant modifications
are shown in Fig. 15. Values of crown and wedge as high
as 2500 and 400 mm respectively, occurred.
Wear contour of roughing mill work roll
When a flat work roll was used the work roll generally
had uneven wear at two edges, as shown in Fig. 16a.
One side had light wear, while the other side had heavy
wear. That will result in a large centre deviation for the
slab in the roll gap, and lead to unstable rolling. Under
that condition, it is not surprising that there were large
Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8 637
Wang et al. VCR back-up roll and negative work roll contour design

a operation side surface condition of R2 work roll; b drive side surface condition of R2 work roll
12 Work roll surface conditions after its one term service when flat contour was adopted on back-up roll of R2

a operation side surface condition of R2 work roll; b drive side surface condition of R2 work roll
13 Work roll surface conditions after its one term service when VCR contour was adopted on back-up roll of R2

14 Roll surface hardness comparison between conven-

tional flat back-up roll and VCR back-up roll on R2
stand

a wear contour of work roll when flat back-up and

work rolls were used on R2; b wear contour of work
roll when VCR back-up roll and negative crown work
roll were applied on R2
16 Comparison results of wear contour of R2 work roll
15 Shape measurements of transfer bar when conven- before and after VCR back-up roll and negative crown
tional flat work roll and back-up roll were used work roll were applied

638 Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2010 VOL 37 NO 8


17 Transfer bar shape measurement results after nega-
wedge, camber and negative crown problems on the
transfer bar. In R2 stand, negative crown contour is
used on the work roll with VCR on back-up roll, and the
wear contour of work roll has a symmetrical shape
shown as in Fig. 16b.
Compared with wear contour of a flat work roll, a
negative crown work roll has a good symmetry of wear
contour, thus a VCR back-up roll not only has the
feature of self-maintaining the roll contour but it can
also improve the wear contour of the work roll. It can be
concluded that negative crown work roll has the
improvement effect on slab rolling stability and leads
to better shape quality of transfer bar, as shown in
Fig. 17 and that this can reduce slab camber defect for
smaller centreline deviation resulted by good alignment
and stability during slab rolling.
Improvement on strip shape control
To verify improvements statistical work on shape
control precision of strips for cold rolling was
performed, see Fig. 18. There are three shape quality
indices recorded by profile and flatness gauge meters.
There is in excess of a 10% increase of strip shape
control precision for all cold strips rolled in the third
season of 2009 compared to the first season of 2008.
Conclusions
1. After much design, finite element method analysis
and trial work, VCR back-up roll and negative crown
work roll technologies have been applied successfully in
the 2250 mm Hot Strip Mill of Qian’an Iron and Steel
Co., Ltd of Shougang Group.
2. Its core technology is that the back-up roll is
ground to have a six-order polynomial curve which has
successfully solved the roll spalling problem especially
on R2 stand. It makes the contact length between work
and back-up rolls adapt with rolled slab width under the
function of rolling force to reduce or eliminate the
adverse contact zone and to make contact stress
distribute evenly between work and back-up rolls. Also
it can enhance the cross-rigidity of loaded roll gap, and
then keep rolled slab profile quality stable.
3. The VCR back-up roll has a good feature of self-
maintenance of roll contour, i.e. it is even and the worn
contour its service operation is similar to ground
contour. Hence the amount of grinding of the VCR
back-up roll can be reduced and the roll life prolonged.
Wang et al. VCR back-up roll and negative work roll contour design
18 Strip control precision comparison before and after
VCR back-up roll and negative crown work roll were
adopted in roughing mills
4. The shape quality of the transfer bar shows a
significant improvement under the function of the
contour configuration of negative crown contour work
roll and VCR back-up roll in the roughing mill. This
provides a good precondition with the finishing mill for
strip shape control. Strip shape quality including crown,
wedge and flatness as a whole has been improved by
more than 10%.
5. VCR back-up roll and negative crown roll tech-
nologies can be easily carried out through grinding roll
with a special contour curve without upgrading any
equipment.
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