Patent ID: 7302820

Claim:
A method for changing a configuration of a rolling mill from first rolls to second rolls, in a supporting stand, the mill including a pair of back-up rolls mounted in back-up roll chocks, the back-up roll chocks being fitted with lateral sliding faces to slide along mated guiding faces on an inner surface of the supporting stand and housing the first rolls between the back-up rolls, the first rolls including upper and lower first rolls disposed on opposite sides of a rolling plane, each end of each first roll being carried by a first roll chock mounted slidingly along guiding faces of hydraulic blocks attached to the inner surface of the supporting stand, the method comprising: moving the pair of back-up rolls away from each other; placing the first rolls disposed in the respective first roll chock on rails, arranged in the supporting stand at a disassembly level, and removing the first rolls; aligning the second rolls, disposed in respective second roll chocks, on the rails to replace the first rolls; slidingly inserting the second rolls into the supporting stand between the back-up rolls; and moving the pair of back-up rolls toward each other, applying a clamping load between the back-up roll chocks; and applying vertical cambering loads to the second rolls, wherein the first rolls and the second rolls are selected from one of: a pair of working rolls, each working roll being disposed on opposite sides of the rolling plane; and a pair of intermediate rolls and a pair of working rolls therebetween, each working roll and corresponding intermediate roll being disposed on opposite sides of the rolling plane, the method further comprising providing rolls having one of a small, medium or large diameter, respectively, disposed in corresponding roll chocks, the rolls remaining fitted in the corresponding roll chocks in each configuration, wherein changing the configurations further comprises: the first rolls being configured in a quarto configuration having a pair of large diameter rolls as working rolls, the first rolls being configured from a quarto configuration having the pair of large diameter rolls as working rolls to a sexto configuration with the second rolls having the pair of large diameter rolls as intermediate rolls and a pair of medium diameter rolls as working rolls, and the first rolls being configured from a sexto configuration having the pair of large diameter rolls as intermediate rolls and the pair of medium diameter rolls as working rolls to a Z-high configuration with the second rolls having the pair of medium diameter rolls as intermediate rolls and a pair of small diameter rolls as working rolls.