Drive selection for rolling mills

Long product rolling mills have stringent requirements for motor drives. The speed drop during head end impact presents the greatest challenge and is dependent on total system inertia and the drives dynamic performance. Modern AC drives have demonstrated superior performance to DC drive systems. For the motor regenerative requirements, systems with multiple AC motors and drives under a common DC bus system allow the braking energy of one motor to be used by others, making AC drive systems very cost-competitive.
Author: Eric Thorstenson Russula Corporation

ong product rolling mills (see Figure 1) are one of the most demanding applications for motor drives. The modern rolling train consists of multiple rolling stands arranged in an in-line configuration with each rolling stand consisting of a top and bottom roll, driven through a gearbox by an electric motor. Typically, 15-21 stands are used depending on the size of the feed billet and the finished product. Finishing speeds of 10-15m/s are common and typical motor sizes for modern mills are 600-1,200kW per stand using typically low voltage (<1,000V) variable speed units. The tension between each stand must be accurately controlled as even minor changes in tension can affect the shape of the product. Additionally, as the billet head end enters each rolling stand, the speed drop must recover very quickly so as not to affect tension control. The motor drives are controlled by a sophisticated cascade/tension/ loop control system, which must take into consideration the design reduction of each stand and the effective roll groove diameter, which is constantly changing due to roll wear and temperature fluctuations. As the hot billet passes through the rolling train it is shaped, reduced in size and lengthened. The product is then transferred to a walking beam cooling bed (typically 60-90m long), via a high-speed transfer system (braking slide/aprons). Shears in the rolling train take head and tail crops, as well as divide the material to fit the cooling bed. The product is then cooled, stacked and bundled in the finishing end of the mill. Configurations of the finishing end vary widely depending on the products and equipment design. A typical finishing end will have more than 200 electric motors, some for simple transfer operations (eg, roller tables), others for high-speed positioning applications (eg, braking slides/aprons, shears and stackers).
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r Fig 1 Rolling mill train

DRIVE SELECTION
Because of the impact loads involved, the motors and drives must be selected to allow for momentary high

overloads. The NEMA standard MG-1 specifies momentary (1 min) overloads of at least 200%. In practice, actual requirements may be different. Whenever the load duty cycle is known, the overload dimensioning of the motor and drive should be checked by experienced rolling mill application specialists using dimensioning software tools offered by most drive and motor manufacturers. It has been shown that to meet the tension control requirements motor speed must be controlled to +/-0.01%. Fortunately, many modern AC and DC digital drives can meet this static accuracy rating. However, the more important criterion is the dynamic performance rating of the drive, which is necessary to minimise the speed drop from the bar head entering each stand. The speed drop is affected by the inertia of the stand/gearbox/motor combination, as well as the dynamic performance of the drive. The maximum speed drop must be limited to no more than 0.25%.sec, as shown in Figure 2. Often it is necessary to mix gearboxes, motors and drives from different manufacturers to reach the optimum combination of system inertia and dynamic performance.

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In January 2009, a rolling mill in the USA installed and commissioned four stand motors and drives, consisting of ABB ACS800 drive modules in a common DC bus configuration, four 800kW Siemens low inertia AC motors, and Prager gearboxes. This combination achieved better than 0.16%.sec impact drop on all products. Figure 3 shows an example from this plant with a 0.1%.sec impact drop.

DC vs AC DRIVES
Most existing rolling mills have DC drives because, until recently, AC drives did not produce the necessary performance. Since all drives in the rolling train must have similar performance, early attempts at installing some AC stands in a DC rolling train required the de-tuning of existing DC drives. Today, the opposite is true. For instance, the above-mentioned rolling mill has 17 stands, with stands 1-13 powered by modern DC digital drives. In this case, the four new AC drives were de-tuned to match the performance of the existing DC drives. Even though AC motors are more efficient and require less maintenance, the expense of changing mill stand motors from AC to DC cannot always be justified. As well as the cost of replacing power cables and of new motor mounting modifications, it is often necessary to replace the gearboxes as rolling mill DC motors are most efficient at low speed and in high torque applications, whereas AC motors typically need to run above 800rpm to be costeffective. Also, the case for the higher efficiency of AC motors is many times negated by the wasteful braking methods of some AC drive systems, as described below. Having said that, an AC alternative should still be carefully considered for motors below 200-300kW, or when new products necessitate the changing of existing DC motors.
Integrated speed drop: 0.25 percent*second Measured as the area under the curve in the above diagram, typically as measured with the drives software or chart recorder. SA = Static accuracy ISD = Integrated speed drop (%s) (area of speed drop triangle) ID = Impact drop percent t = Duration of speed drop in seconds I = 100% rated current r Fig 2 Definition of a 0.25%.sec maximum speed drop

However, braking in an AC drive system is not as straightforward. Low voltage AC drives consist of a rectifier (AC to DC) section, feeding an inverter (DC to AC) section. During braking the inverters are regenerative to the DC bus as standard, but the standard rectifier section cannot transfer this energy back to the incoming line. To handle this, most drive manufacturers offer several types of rectifier sections.

BRAKING
Many stand drives in the rolling train can be run with two quadrant drives, but some braking is necessary for rapid controlled stopping for product changes or in emergency stop situations. However, some edger stand and shear drives, as well as many smaller drives in the finishing area, require full four-quadrant operation. In DC drive systems the braking power is typically regenerated via a reverse armature bridge (four quadrant). When controlled stopping is needed a controlled reversing field supply is all that is required. Regenerating DC drive systems is inexpensive as modern DC drive modules can go up to about 5,000 amps with only six thyristors. The regenerative four-quadrant option requires, at most, only six additional thyristors. Also, new Bi-Directional Controlled Thyristors (BCTs) are now available, which means four-quadrant DC drives up to 5,000A with only six power BCTs are commonplace.

RECTIfIER SECTION TypES

Standard diode rectifier This is the most common and robust type. In most cases this rectifier also includes some thyristors or other switching devices to soft charge the capacitors in the inverter sections. During braking the DC bus voltage rises, then at a certain level, a controlled chopper dumps the power into a large resistor. This resistor, however, wastes the power, often negating the efficiency advantage of AC over DC motors. Thyristor rectifier This is one of the older designs, similar to a four-quadrant DC drive. During braking the DC bus voltage rises, then at a certain level the forward set of thyristor gate signals are removed and the reverse set is gated. However, while a DC drive is feeding an inductor (motor), the rectifier in an AC drive is feeding a capacitor bank. In the event of an incoming line voltage dip at the same time as the reverse thyristors are gated, the forward set of thyristors may not turn off. This results a

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r Fig 3 Actual impact speed drop recording showing 0.1%.sec impact drop

in a shortcircuit across the DC bus, blowing all the fuses. Although a little less expensive than a standard rectifier, this type of rectifier is not recommended for most rolling mill applications. Inverter rectifier Different drive manufacturers have different names for this. Basically, it is an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) inverter unit acting as a rectifier. It provides the true four-quadrant operation of a DC drive, with a near unity power factor and even a limited ability to ride through some power dips. However, this is the most expensive type, typically costing more than twice as much as the standard diode rectifier. The standard diode unit provides a power factor better than 0.95, so the unity feature is normally not of great benefit. For standalone shears, braking slides, etc, that require four-quadrant operation, this is the only practical alternative. For these applications braking resistor are not a viable solution.

COMMON DC BUS AC DRIVES

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An increasingly popular option for AC drives is the common DC bus solution (see Figure 4). Integrators can now package drive modules from most manufacturers such that a common rectifier feeds multiple inverter units.

Any of the inverters that are braking will regenerate to the common DC bus. This braking power is then used by other inverters that are motoring. This allows a simple diode rectifier to be used, providing most of the benefits of the expensive IGBT inverter-rectifier. Normally a single chopper and resistor are incorporated and used mainly for emergency stop conditions. When an inverter regenerates power to the common DC bus, it charges up the capacitors in all the connected inverter modules. In a rolling mill all the inverter units need to be oversized to accommodate the up to 200% head end impact overloads, although only one drive at a time experiences the impact. This results in a large total capacitance compared to the used power. It is ideal for braking as the large capacitor bank, along with the motoring loads, is able to absorb the immediate and frequent braking power of even start/stop shears, then distribute the stored power to the motoring loads. The more motors and inverters there are under the common DC bus the more effective the use of the regenerative power. Also, the total installed cost is reduced by using a few large drive systems, rather than multiple ones. By paralleling multiple rectifier modules, a common DC bus drive as large as 4,000kW can now

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r Fig 4 Common DC bus drive system. Single power feed, multiple motor outputs in a pre-packaged and pre-tested cabinet

be built and a single transformer is all that is needed to feed the system. A common apprehension about DC bus systems is that if the rectifier fails, the complete line-up fails. Normally, any drive that fails will shut the mill down until it is repaired or a temporary solution is found. However, larger common bus drive systems, as used in rolling mills, require two or three such rectifier modules in parallel, as adding an additional rectifier module to provide redundant capacity is easily done, which alleviates this concern.

r Fig 5 Individual drives fed by an MCC (not shown)

A single power feed to the rectifier, plus having all the components pre-assembled and tested in a cabinet, saves considerable installation cost and floor space.

MAINTENANCE CONSIDERATIONS
Historically, AC drives were not very reliable, but most drive component manufacturers have made great strides to improve the serviceability of their drive systems. Rather than attempting to replace IGBTs or other components inside the drives, most are now constructed so that a rectifier or inverter module can easily be removed from the cabinet and replaced with a complete spare module. Some drive manufacturers supply the rectifier and inverter modules as complete three-phase units on wheels with plug connections (similar to draw-out circuit breakers), and a failed module can be replaced in about 10 minutes. The failed module can be repaired on a bench or at the manufacturers. Most have a fixed exchange price, sending out a complete module if the customer sends back the damaged one. The manufacturer then repairs and tests the module for use by another customer. Figure 4 shows common DC bus AC drives D4 and R8i modules.

CONCLUSIONS
Long product rolling mills have stringent requirements for motor drives. The speed drop during head end impact presents the greatest challenge and depends on the total system inertia and variable speed drives dynamic performance. When care is taken in selecting components for inertia, AC drives have demonstrated superior performance to DC drive systems. For the regenerative requirements needed for the frequent 200% braking power for start-stop shears, braking slides, aprons, etc, DC drives have enjoyed a distinct cost advantage. However, systems with multiple AC motors and drives under a common DC bus system allow the braking energy of one motor (eg, a shear) to be used by other motoring loads (eg, stands). This provides a cost-effective approach, making AC drives systems competitive for long product rolling mill applications. MS Eric Thorstenson is Director of Sales & Application Engineering, North America, Russula Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. CONTACT: info@russulacorp.com

INSTALLATION CONSIDERATIONS
Common DC bus systems combine the functions of a motor control centre (MCC) with drives in a pre-packaged unit (see Figure 5).

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