Method for the production of flat metal products, in particular coils of strip, in endless and/or semi-endless mode, in which a metal product is continuously fed to a rolling mill consisting overall of at least 4 stands. The rolling stands are, in sequence, roughing stands, and finishing stands. It is provided to perform a flying gauge change of the metal product exiting from the rolling mill.

Method for the production of flat metal products, in particular coils of strip, in endless and/or semi-endless mode, in which a metal product is continuously fed to a rolling mill consisting overall of at least 4 stands. The rolling stands are, in sequence, roughing stands, and finishing stands. It is provided to perform a flying gauge change of the metal product exiting from the rolling mill.

A method for operating a roll stand for the stepped rolling of metal strip is described. The metal strip is initially fed into a roll stand on the infeed side, where it is step-rolled. This creates a leading and a trailing section of the metal strip, each with different thicknesses. After the roll stand, the step-rolled metal strip initially passes through an outfeed-side strip accumulator before it is wound into a coil by an upcoiler. The outfeed-side reel is controlled to a constant strip tension. To keep the outfeed-side strip tension sufficiently constant even in the case of rapid changes in the size of the roll gap and the resulting rapid changes in thickness in the rolled metal strip the control of the strip tension with the aid of the upcoiler is supplemented by a position control for a roller unit in the outfeed-side strip accumulator.

When the tracking point reaches the i-th stand, the continuous rolling system outputs, to an i-th stand, a roll gap operation value for bringing to zero a difference between a value which is obtained by correcting a strip thickness target value of the i-th stand with a target strip thickness correction value of the i-th stand and a value which is obtained by correcting a strip thickness actual recalculation value of the i-th stand with a gap correction value of the i-th stand. Here, the gap correction value is a correction value that brings to zero a difference between a head end gap error when a head end of the material to be rolled reaches the i-th stand and a non-head end gap error when a part other than the head end of the material to be rolled reaches the i-th stand.

When the tracking point reaches the i-th stand, the continuous rolling system outputs, to an i-th stand, a roll gap operation value for bringing to zero a difference between a value which is obtained by correcting a strip thickness target value of the i-th stand with a target strip thickness correction value of the i-th stand and a value which is obtained by correcting a strip thickness actual recalculation value of the i-th stand with a gap correction value of the i-th stand. Here, the gap correction value is a correction value that brings to zero a difference between a head end gap error when a head end of the material to be rolled reaches the i-th stand and a non-head end gap error when a part other than the head end of the material to be rolled reaches the i-th stand.

An apparatus for processing metallic strip material comprises a feeder for feeding strip material; a strip drive with at least one controllable traction drive with a carrier and a motor, a drivable traction loop and a press assembly, wherein the power of the motor and the pressing force of the press assembly are variably controllable; a roller assembly for flexible rolling; a measuring device for measuring a physical parameter of a component acting on the strip material; wherein the driving power of the motor is controllable on the basis of the physical parameter measured by the measuring device.

A method for dynamic roll gap control for flexible rolling of metallic strip material can include: defining a nominal thickness profile with defined nominal corner points and with profile sections lying in between, wherein two profile sections adjoining a nominal corner point each have different average gradients; flexible rolling of the strip material according to the nominal thickness profile; measuring an actual thickness profile of the flexibly rolled strip material; determining actual corner points corresponding to the nominal corner points and actual intermediate points corresponding to the nominal intermediate points; determining corner point comparison values from the nominal corner points and the corresponding actual corner points, as well as intermediate point comparison values from the nominal intermediate points with the corresponding actual intermediate points; controlling a roll gap depending on the corner point comparison values and the intermediate point comparison values.

A method for dynamic roll gap control for flexible rolling of metallic strip material can include: defining a nominal thickness profile with defined nominal corner points and with profile sections lying in between, wherein two profile sections adjoining a nominal corner point each have different average gradients; flexible rolling of the strip material according to the nominal thickness profile; measuring an actual thickness profile of the flexibly rolled strip material; determining actual corner points corresponding to the nominal corner points and actual intermediate points corresponding to the nominal intermediate points; determining corner point comparison values from the nominal corner points and the corresponding actual corner points, as well as intermediate point comparison values from the nominal intermediate points with the corresponding actual intermediate points; controlling a roll gap depending on the corner point comparison values and the intermediate point comparison values.

A roll stand with at least one working roll for rolling strip material and with a hydraulic arrangement for controlling a roll gap of the roll stand, comprises at least one hydraulic adjustment unit for adjusting the roll gap, the hydraulic adjustment unit comprising a cylinder and an adjusting piston dividing the cylinder into a first chamber and a second chamber; a first double-acting valve arrangement and a second double-acting valve arrangement which are each connected to the first chamber and the second chamber for variable control of the adjusting unit, wherein the second double-acting valve arrangement is connected in parallel with the first valve arrangement and has a larger nominal volume flow than the latter; and wherein the adjusting unit can be pressurized with an working pressure of more than 200 bar.

A roll stand with at least one working roll for rolling strip material and with a hydraulic arrangement for controlling a roll gap of the roll stand, comprises at least one hydraulic adjustment unit for adjusting the roll gap, the hydraulic adjustment unit comprising a cylinder and an adjusting piston dividing the cylinder into a first chamber and a second chamber; a first double-acting valve arrangement and a second double-acting valve arrangement which are each connected to the first chamber and the second chamber for variable control of the adjusting unit, wherein the second double-acting valve arrangement is connected in parallel with the first valve arrangement and has a larger nominal volume flow than the latter; and wherein the adjusting unit can be pressurized with an working pressure of more than 200 bar.