Patent ID: 7980109

Claim:
A method for inspecting a strip in a reversible rolling plant, the method comprising the following steps: providing two winders/unwinders each having a mandrel receiving a respective upstream or downstream strip service length wound thereon into several spires for tensioning the strip, defining a useful part of the strip between the upstream and downstream service strip lengths; providing a rolling mill having at least one cage with cylinders between the two winders/unwinders; rolling the strip in several roll passes, including a last roll pass, between one of the winders/unwinders placed upstream of the at least one cage in a rolling direction and acting as an uncoiler and another of the winders/unwinders placed downstream of the at least one cage and acting as a coiler until obtaining a requested strip thickness over an entire length of the useful part of the strip remaining wound on the mandrels upon each pass; at the end of the last roll pass, completely unwinding the upstream service length from the upstream uncoiler and subjecting the upstream service length to at least one roll pass between the cylinders; then cutting the strip in vicinity of an end of the useful part to release a length at least equal to a necessary inspection length at a rear end in direction of the last pass, defining at least one part of the strip corresponding to the upstream service length having been rolled at least once and providing an image of aspect failures generated by the cylinders over the useful part of the strip; and inspecting the aspect failures.