This includes information on flaws and their location and severity, as well as average wall thickness. This radioisotope meter will read the variation in strip thickness from one side of the sheet to the other and let operators know how much of a crown exists after the sheet passes the last stand. The mill's previous profile gage was a center-line gage that was pulled across the strip. The new technology allows us to continually take snapshots of the whole width, instead of getting a diagonal picture of it running down the length. Granite City also is modifying stands two through seven to accommodate automatic roll bending through a new computer model.
Hydraulic cylinders allow for the bending of work rolls to achieve a flatter profile.
This will reduce by 80 percent the amount of sheet that must be further processed by either tension leveling or skin passing when the project is complete in April 2001. At Crawfordsville's hot-strip mill, operators positioned directly over the slabs as they enter the first finishing stand detect longitudinal cracks, scratches, and scale problems. So, there's no opportunity to have any visual looks. Also, at a strip caster, liquid steel is cast directly from a mold, so no slab is formed. Nucor Crawfordsville initially will install the unit on its hot mill, tune it up, and then move it to the strip caster.