Patent ID: 6763561
Filing Date: 2004-07-20
Classification: B21B,Y10T

Abstract:
An apparatus for the parallel production of different metal shapes, said apparatus comprising:a flow-former having n mutually adjacent but separate shaping passages for producing a corresponding number of continuous metal strands of different cross sections, where n is an even number but at least equal to 2 or >2; an extractor including at least one pair of pinch rollers below said flow-former for drawing said strands from said passages; a tunnel-shaped preheating induction furnace downstream of said extractor and traversed by said strands for heating said strands to hot-rolling temperature; a hot-rolling line downstream of said induction furnace and comprising a multiplicity of roll stands successively engaging said strands and having rolls oriented for reducing cross sections of said strands in at least two different directions so that a width of 60 to 70 mm of each strands is reduced to about 12 mm with an increase of peripheral speed of the rolls at an inlet to said line of about 14 m/min to a peripheral speed of the rolls of about 12 m/sec at an outlet of said line; at least n/2 universal rolling units downstream of said hot-rolling line and each comprised of 12 roll-pair groups oriented along two rolling lines and with alternating rolling of a pair of said strands in two mutually perpendicular directions for rolling same with a final peripheral roll speed of about 85 m/sec, each of said universal rolling units including rows of first stands driven by common shafts located at base vertices of an isosceles triangle and another row of stands driven by a common shaft located along an apical vertex of said isosceles triangle and having rolls alternating with the rolls of the first stands along said two rolling lines; and loop control systems between said hot-rolling line and the apparatus upstream thereof and between said hot-rolling line and said units for compensating for speed variations between relatively upstream and downstream parts of the apparatus.