An edging method including changing an incident angle of a slab with respect to a pair of edging members that are disposed on a conveyance line of the slab and that edge the slab based on information relating to the slab acquired at at least one of prior to edging or after edging.

A large-size H-shaped steel product is efficiently and stably produced by performing flat shaping and rolling of a large-size raw blank while improving a generation efficiency of flanges without bringing about problems such as elongation in a web height direction and deformation of a flange corresponding part. A rough rolling step includes an edging rolling step of rolling and shaping a material to be rolled into a predetermined almost dog-bone shape, and a flat rolling step of performing rolling of a web part by rotating the material to be rolled after completion of the edging rolling step by 90 or 270, upper and lower caliber rolls of at least one caliber of calibers configured to perform the flat rolling step include recessed parts configured to form a raised part at a middle of a web part of the material to be rolled, the recessed parts being provided at roll barrel length middle parts of the upper and lower caliber rolls, a width of the raised part formed in the flat rolling step is set to 25% or more and 50% or less of a web part inner size of the material to be rolled, and a thickness of the web part rolled in the flat rolling step is set to a predetermined thickness thicker than a web part thickness when the intermediate rolling step is started.

The ratio of the difference between a surface distance L at each of the different positions in a width direction DW of a metal sheet and a minimum surface distance Lm to the minimum surface distance Lm is an elongation difference ratio. The elongation difference ratio in a center section in the width direction DW of the metal sheet is less than or equal to 310.sup.5. The elongation difference ratios in two edge sections in the width direction DW of the metal sheet are less than or equal to 1510.sup.5. The elongation difference ratio in at least one of the two edge sections in the width direction DW of the metal sheet is less than the elongation difference ratio in the center section in the width direction of the metal sheet.

Before the rolling of a metal strip on a finishing train, the actual width and actual temperature of portions of the metal strip are respectively detected. The portions of the metal strip are tracked while they run through the finishing train. The rolling stands are respectively assigned width controlling devices which determine the setpoint width and the actual width after the rolling in the assigned rolling stand, and a downstream additional setpoint value, by which the desired tension downstream of the assigned rolling stand is corrected in order to bring the actual width closer to the setpoint width. The downstream additional setpoint value is both taken into account in the determination of the actual width and fed to a tension controller, which sets an actual tension, in the metal strip downstream of the assigned rolling stand, in accordance with the corrected setpoint tension. Determining the downstream additional setpoint value by the difference between the setpoint width and the actual width of a portion of the metal strip.

Before the rolling of a metal strip on a finishing train, the actual width and actual temperature of portions of the metal strip are respectively detected. The portions of the metal strip are tracked while they run through the finishing train. The rolling stands are respectively assigned width controlling devices which determine the setpoint width and the actual width after the rolling in the assigned rolling stand, and a downstream additional setpoint value, by which the desired tension downstream of the assigned rolling stand is corrected in order to bring the actual width closer to the setpoint width. The downstream additional setpoint value is both taken into account in the determination of the actual width and fed to a tension controller, which sets an actual tension, in the metal strip downstream of the assigned rolling stand, in accordance with the corrected setpoint tension. Determining the downstream additional setpoint value by the difference between the setpoint width and the actual width of a portion of the metal strip.

A combined casting and rolling installation that produces hot-rolled strip with a final thickness<1.2 mm, and includes a first continuous casting installation and a second continuous casting installation, each producing slabs from liquid steel; a slab manipulator that conveys the slabs into a walking beam furnace that conveys the slabs into a rolling installation and heats the slabs to rolling temperature. The rolling installation includes a rough rolling mill forming rough-rolled strips from the heated slabs; a coil box forming a coil from the rough-rolled strip and unwinding the rough-rolled strip; a joining device forming an endless rough-rolled strip by connecting its ends without filler material; a multi-stand finishing rolling mill finish-rolling the endless rough-rolled strip to form a finished strip with the final thickness; a cooling section forming the hot-rolled strip; and a plurality of coiling devices coiling the hot-rolled strip.

A method of controlling a rolling mill production system for production of a coil-shaped end product from a slab, the production including processing the slab by sequentially arranged production units, the processing by the production units resulting in a respective strip-shaped product having physical data, the method including modeling, under consideration of the physical data, the processing of a testing product by a plurality of production units arranged downstream from a given production unit while taking into account the physical data. If the modelling shows that, under consideration of the physical data, one of the products resulting from processing by the downstream production units does not meet a predetermined quality criterion, the intended manufacture of the product is interrupted and a signal relating to the interrupting is outputted.

A cooling method for a rolling ingot of aluminum alloy after metallurgical homogenization heat treatment of said ingot and before hot rolling, characterized in that cooling by 30 to 150? C. is performed at a rate of 150 to 500? C./h, with a thermal differential of less than 40? C. throughout the treated portion of the ingot is disclosed. A facility allowing use of said method and said implementation is also disclosed.

The ratio of the difference between a surface distance L at each of the different positions in a width direction DW of a metal sheet and a minimum surface distance Lm to the minimum surface distance Lm is an elongation difference ratio. The elongation difference ratio in a center section in the width direction DW of the metal sheet is less than or equal to 310.sup.5. The elongation difference ratios in two edge sections in the width direction DW of the metal sheet are less than or equal to 1510.sup.5. The elongation difference ratio in at least one of the two edge sections in the width direction DW of the metal sheet is less than the elongation difference ratio in the center section in the width direction of the metal sheet.

A method and apparatus for flatness measuring and measuring of residual stresses in a metallic flat product (1): The method includes bending the flat product (1) in a bending device (3) such that a planar flat product (1) forms an arc (5) with a target bending radius r.sub.0 after bending; measuring the contour and the actual bending radii r(y), in the region of the arc (5) of the bent flat product (1) at a plurality of positions along the width direction of the flat product (1); and determining the flatness of the flat product (1) taking into account the measured contour of the bent flat product (1).