The readings from the TSI and Vollmer sensors are sent to a General Electric automatic gauge control system. The system monitors strip speed and thickness at entry and exit. It sends commands to the GE drive control system to maintain the desired thickness. Carpenter technicians customized the Frohling mill's data management system as a further hedge against variation in the cold rolled strip. To accomplish this, all of the mill's rolling schedules are entered into a common database each day.
Information includes the input parameters based on the incoming coil characteristics.
The data management system then predicts the schedule that is required to roll each coil. All of the process data are stored so that the mill's operators can verify the accuracy of each prediction. Carpenter wet grinds about 95 percent of the steel strip it rolls through the Frohling mill to prepare it for further processing. This involves using grinding belts covered with grit to remove oxide from the surface of the steel strip for processing. Previously, Carpenter ground one side of a strip at a time, but now a Hill Acme wet strip grinder prepares both sides of the strip simultaneously, doubling productivity.