Lightweight Work Roll Flattening Model for Severe Rolling Conditions

Robert Paul Schaeffer (right) Senior Mechanical Engineer, Braho Machinery LLC , Grove City, Pa., USA pschaeffer@brahomach.com Rolling models assuming a circular deformed roll profile have been successfully used for many years. They are known to have deficiencies on hard materials, thin gauges and low reductions. Modern numerical models with fully elastic roll deformation are a solution, but the computational cost is too high to have widespread use. A simplified model is presented that captures the essential elements of the fully elastic deformed roll shape and can be applied on Bland-Ford-style rolling calculations.