Overview Of Cold Rolling Mill Technology

Cold rolling mills are core equipment in the field of metal processing, mainly used for high-precision rolling of hot-rolled plates and coils at room temperature. Compared with the traditional hot rolling process, cold rolling can significantly improve the surface quality of the sheet (roughness can be controlled within Ra≤0.8μm), dimensional accuracy (thickness tolerance ±0.01mm), and mechanical properties (hardness increased by 20%-40%). Modern cold rolling mills are usually composed of uncoiling machines, multi-stand rolling mills, tension control systems and coiling machines, and closed-loop control is achieved by using PLC and artificial intelligence algorithms.
Core technologies and classification
Rolling mill type:
Four-roll/six-roll rolling mill: The stiffness of the roll system is adjusted by the intermediate roll, suitable for the production of thin plates ranging from 0.15 to 3mm
Twenty-roll Senjimir rolling mill: It adopts small-diameter working rolls (Φ50-150mm) and can roll extremely thin strips of 0.002mm
Continuous rolling unit: Equipped with 5 to 7 racks, it achieves high-speed rolling at 800m/min
Key technological breakthroughs:
The plate shape control system (such as ABB's ShapeRoll®) can adjust the roll gap convexity in real time
The response time of the automatic thickness control (AGC) system is less than 10ms
The service life of the new type of roll material (high-speed steel/tungsten carbide) reaches 6,000-10,000 tons
Industry applications and trends
In the field of automotive manufacturing, cold-rolled steel sheets account for more than 70% of the materials used in vehicle bodies. The demand for extremely thin copper foil (6-8μm) for batteries in the new energy industry has driven the upgrade of the 20-roll mill. The global cold rolling mill market size is expected to exceed 8.2 billion US dollars by 2025. Intelligence (application of digital twin technology) and greenness (reducing energy consumption per ton of steel to below 35kWh) have become the main development directions.