JP2017202522A - Group organization method of intermediate product and decision support device of sorting condition - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To continue stable manufacturing at a downstream process without causing the saturation of a collection space caused by bundles of sorted steel pieces.SOLUTION: In a group organization method of an intermediate product, in a manufacturing line 1, steel pieces which are sent from an upstream process such as a continuous casting machine, or a heating furnace and rolling equipment 10 are sorted into bundles being transfer units in a crane 7 on the basis of a prescribed sorting condition, and temporarily stored in the process, and the temporarily-stored bundles of the steel pieces are sent to a downstream process by the crane 7. When deciding the sorting condition for sorting the steel pieces which are sent from the upstream process into the bundles, the steel pieces are sorted into the bundles by using at least one or more attributes out of a plurality of attributes possessed by the steel pieces as the sorting condition, and the sorting condition is decided by employing only one attribute having a number at which a bundle number being the number of the sorted bundles becomes not larger than a processing capacity of the crane 7.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an intermediate product grouping method and a sorting condition determination support apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a technique for determining sorting conditions when sorting slabs and steel slabs for slabs cast at a continuous casting facility or steel slabs rolled at a lump factory. Is.

Although the present invention is a method that can be applied to a slab as well as a steel slab, in the following description, the steel slab is taken as an example.
Conventionally, in a production line for processing a material such as a steel slab into a product such as a wire rod, the steel slab conveyed from the upper heating / rolling process is temporarily stocked, and A transport system that transports only predetermined steel slabs to the downstream side in accordance with the processing schedule of the rolling equipment for the downstream wire rod is adopted.

As a technique applicable to such a steel piece conveyance system, for example, one disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known.
That is, in the transport system of Patent Document 1, when the steel bar of the product transported from the upper process is carried into the automatic warehouse, the steel bar that has been transported is first stocked in the buffer stock field, and the change in the loading efficiency of the automatic warehouse is performed. Based on the above, it is configured to carry out the steel bar to the automatic warehouse. When the bar stock stocked in this buffer stock field is judged whether it can be loaded into an automatic warehouse based on the outer shape and length of the bar measured by the detector, and it is judged that it can be loaded Is carried out to the automatic warehouse in the lower process, and when it is determined that the carry-in is impossible, correction is performed at the correction site.

  Although the conveyance system of patent document 1 is related with the steel bar of the product received in an automatic warehouse, it has the structure which can fully be used also when conveying a steel slab in the manufacturing line of the wire mentioned above.

JP 2003-192196 A

In the above-described block rolling line, there are cases in which steel slabs conveyed from the above process have different attributes (for example, composition components, casting conditions, sample collection, etc.). Such billets having different attributes are collected for each attribute under a predetermined sorting condition, sorted as a bundle of billets, and then sent to the lower process.
Here, the relationship between the attribute described above and “cast”, “charge”, and “lot” used in the following description is shown.

First, steels with the same “charge” are steels with the same composition. When several “charges” are connected, they are called “casts”. However, even if the “casts” are the same, “charges” having different composition components may be connected. However, when the “cast” is the same, it is often the composition component of the same system.
The “charge” is divided into several “lots”. Among the same continuous casting equipment, the slab cast at the beginning (to be exact, the slab obtained by rolling and cutting the slab cast at the beginning, and so on), the slab cast in the middle, and finally The production conditions (for example, the casting speed and the fluctuation of the molten metal surface in a continuous casting machine) may differ depending on the steel piece cast in the same manner. “Lot” indicates the classification.

  Explaining the inclusion relationship of “cast”, “charge”, and “lot”, it can be said that “charge” is the same if “lot” is the same, and “cast” is the same if the “charge” is the same. Lastly, there is a steel slab that is sampled and a steel slab that is not sampled in the same “cast”, “charge”, and “lot”, and these are not related to the inclusion relationship.

  Now, as described above, steel slabs having different attributes are grouped for each attribute under a predetermined sorting condition, and are sent to a lower process after being sorted as a bundle of steel slabs. It is difficult to properly set the sorting conditions when sorting the pieces into bundles. If the sorting conditions are too strict, the number of bundles of steel pieces becomes enormous. Naturally, when the number of bundles of steel slabs becomes enormous and exceeds the capacity of the unloading means for unloading the bundles for the lower process, it becomes difficult to stably operate the production line.

Conversely, if the setting of the sorting conditions is relaxed too much, the number of bundles of steel slabs can be suppressed, but there is a difference in attributes between the steel slabs of one bundle, and stable processing with little variation (processing in the lower process) ) Will be difficult to do.
The technique of Patent Document 1 does not correspond to such a problem. That is, in the transport system of Patent Document 1, if there is a problem with the outer shape and length of the steel strip that is carried in, correction is performed at the correction site, but in principle all the steel strip discharged to the automatic warehouse has the same shape and physical properties. The strips are not sorted or sorted according to their attributes.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and a steel slab having the same attribute is provided for a steel slab having a difference in attributes (for example, composition components, casting conditions, presence / absence of sampling). It is an object of the present invention to provide an intermediate product grouping method and sorting condition determination support device when sorting as a bundle.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the intermediate product grouping method and sorting condition determination support apparatus of the present invention employ the following technical means.
In other words, the intermediate product grouping method of the present invention is a unit for transporting steel slabs sent from an upper process such as a continuous casting machine or a heating furnace / rolling facility based on predetermined sorting conditions. It was sent from the upper process (continuous casting machine, or heating furnace / rolling equipment) for the production line in which the bundle of temporarily stored steel slabs is sent to the lower process with the crane. When determining the sorting conditions for sorting the billets into bundles, the billets are divided into bundles using at least one attribute among the plurality of attributes of the billets as sorting conditions. The number of bundles, which is the number of bundles, is adopted as the sorting condition by adopting only the attributes whose number is equal to or less than the processing capacity of the crane.

Preferably, as the processing capacity of the crane, when the crane can transport N bundles, the steel piece attribute that enables the steel pieces to be sorted into N bundles or less is set as the sorting capacity. It is better to make it a condition.
Further, the sorting condition determination support apparatus of the present invention is a unit for transporting a steel slab sent from an upper process such as a continuous casting machine or a heating furnace / rolling equipment based on a predetermined sorting condition. Regarding a production line for temporarily storing a bundle of steel slabs divided into bundles and sending the temporarily stored steel slab bundles to the lower process with the crane, a sorting condition determination support device for sorting the steel slabs sent from the upper process into bundles , A bundle number deriving device that divides the steel piece into bundles using at least one attribute among the plurality of attributes of the steel piece as a sorting condition, and derives the number of bundles, and the attribute used therefor And a bundle number display device that displays the number of bundles generated in pairs, and a sorting condition input device that allows a user who views the display to input attributes used for sorting. To do.

  Preferably, a knitting place for temporarily storing and knitting the steel slabs is provided on the entry side of the stacking table provided in the production line, and the number of the steel slabs after the sorting is the bundle. Is less than the number constituting the bundle, if the sorted steel pieces are stored in the knitting place, and the number of steel pieces after the sorting becomes equal to the number constituting the bundle, The sorted steel slabs are sent to a lower process, and the number of knitting places necessary for storing the sorted steel slabs is constantly calculated, and the calculated number of knitting places When the number of knitting places provided in the stack exceeds the number of knitting places, the steel pieces present at the knitting places provided on the stacking table are sent as a bundle to the lower process.

  According to the intermediate product grouping method and sorting condition determination support device of the present invention, a steel slab having the same attribute with respect to a steel slab having different attributes such as cast, charge, lot, sample collection, etc. When sorting as a bundle, the number of bundles of sorted steel pieces does not increase too much, and stable production can be continued in the lower process.

It is a perspective view of the manufacturing line of 1st Embodiment. It is a top view of the manufacturing line of 1st Embodiment. It is the figure which put together the relationship between the number of the attributes employ | adopted for sorting conditions, and the number of dogs in a tabular form. It is the figure which showed the determination support apparatus of the sorting conditions of 1st Embodiment. It is a top view of the manufacturing line of 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the reading procedure of the billet information performed with the determination support apparatus of the sorting conditions of 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the clogging judgment procedure of the stacking table performed with the classification condition determination assistance apparatus of 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure which calculates the number of the knitting places required in order to store the steel slab after sorting. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure which conveys a steel piece so that the calculated number of knitting places may not exceed the number of knitting places.

[First Embodiment]
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of an intermediate product grouping method of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
1 and 2 show an example (first embodiment) of a production line 1 in which the intermediate product grouping method of the present invention is performed. This production line 1 is for producing steel slabs (see B in FIG. 1), and is configured such that the steel slabs rolled in the heating furnace / rolling equipment 10 are first sent to the cooling bed 3 for cooling. Yes. In the production line 1, the steel pieces cooled by the cooling bed 3 are transported by the transport table 4 and sorted by the sorting means 5 provided on the transport table 4 on the exit side in the transport direction. In this sorting means 5, the steel pieces are sorted into a plurality of bundles of steel pieces according to the sorting conditions, and the sorted bundles of steel pieces are temporarily stored on the stacking table 6. This bundle of steel pieces is referred to as “dog (see D in FIG. 1)”, and in this stacking table 6, the steel pieces are stored in units of a plurality (N) of dogs. The steel pieces thus stored in units of dogs are transported by the crane 7 on a dog-by-dog basis, transferred to the pallet 8 or the like, and then sent to a lower process such as a wire rod mill 9.

Next, the continuous casting machine 2 (continuous casting machine), the heating furnace / rolling equipment 10, the cooling bed 3, the transfer table 4, the sorting means 5, the stacking table 6, the crane 7 and the pallet 8 constituting the production line 1 will be described first. To do.
The continuous casting machine 2 (continuous casting machine 2) continuously casts slabs such as bloom. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the cut slab is heated, rolled, and cut into a steel slab of a predetermined size in the heating furnace / rolling line 10 shown in the figure, and transferred to the cooling bed 3. Is done. In addition, a various attribute is provided to a steel piece by passing through the process of this casting, heating, and rolling.

In the first embodiment, steel slabs rolled in the heating furnace / rolling line 10 of the present invention will be described as an example, but as an application destination of the present invention, assortment conditions for slabs are used. Alternatively, the present invention can be applied to sorting conditions for slabs, and the shape of steel slabs, cast slabs, and slabs is not limited to a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and can be similarly applied to a cylinder.
The cooling bed 3 is a facility for cooling the steel slab sent from the heating furnace / rolling equipment 10, and extends in the sliding direction and a plurality of fixed bars 11 that are fixed so as not to move. And a plurality of movable bars 12 movable in the transport direction. The plurality of fixing bars 11 support a load applied from the steel piece at a plurality of locations along the longitudinal direction of the steel piece.
The plurality of movable bars 12 are arranged at a distance from the fixed bar 11 between the plurality of fixed bars 11. The movable bar 12 can be moved up and down in the vertical direction. The movable bar 12 is configured to be able to lift the conveyed steel piece, convey it to the downstream side, and slide it on the fixed bar 11 on the downstream side. A cooling fan that blows cooling air (for example, room temperature air) to a steel piece placed on the cooling floor 3 is disposed below the cooling floor 3. Cooling air sent from between can promote cooling of the steel slab.

  The conveyance table 4 is a method of placing the steel pieces cooled in the cooling bed 3 on a plurality of conveyance rolls 13 arranged in the horizontal direction, and using the rotation of the plurality of conveyance rolls 13 from the cooling bed 3 to the stacking table 6. Is to be conveyed. Specifically, the transport table 4 is configured to transport the steel slab in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction (slide direction) of the steel slab on the cooling floor 3, and has a predetermined distance in the slide direction. It has a plurality of transport rolls 13 that are open and aligned along the horizontal direction. Each of the plurality of transport rolls 13 is mounted so as to be rotatable about an axis that faces in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the steel slab, and is disposed at substantially the same height in the vertical direction. It can be moved horizontally. Moreover, the conveyance table 4 is arranged so as to connect between the cooling floor 3 and the sorting means 5 described later, and the steel pieces cooled by the cooling floor 3 can be conveyed to the sorting means 5 described later. The steel slabs thus transported by the transport table 4 are sorted by the sorting means 5 according to the sorting conditions and are transported to the stacking table 6.

The sorting means 5 has a configuration in which the steel pieces placed on the transport table 4 are moved to a predetermined position on the stacking table 6 according to sorting conditions described later and sorted. The production line 1 of the present embodiment has a configuration in which steel pieces are divided and stored on two stacking tables 6, and sorting means 5 is provided for each stacking table 6.
In addition, the production line 1 of the first embodiment is provided with two stacking tables 6 for transferring steel pieces, and the sorting means 5 is provided on either of the two stacking tables 6. Specifically, the stacking table 6 positioned on the upstream side (left side in FIG. 1) in the transport direction along the transport direction of the transport table 4 is referred to as a “first stacking table 61”. The sorting means 5 for moving the steel pieces is referred to as “first sorting means 51”. Further, the stacking table 6 located on the downstream side in the transport direction (the right side in FIG. 1) is referred to as a “second stacking table 62”. Means 52 ".

In the sorting unit 5 of the first embodiment, either the first sorting unit 51 or the second sorting unit 52 described above is used, or a steel slab is placed in any location of the first stacking table 61 or the second stacking table 62. Whether to transfer is determined according to sorting conditions described later.
The stacking table 6 is a place where the steel pieces sorted by the sorting means 5 are stored (stacked) as a single unit or a plurality of pieces. The storage unit of the steel pieces when stored on the stacking table 6 is referred to as “dog”. In the steps after the stacking table 6, the steel pieces are transported or processed in units of dogs. This dog is a collection of a predetermined number (N pieces) of steel pieces with common attributes such as “cast”, “charge”, “lot”, “sample collection”, etc. In the case of this embodiment, the maximum number of steel pieces to be included is five.

  Further, the stacking table 6 has the same structure as the cooling floor 3 described above, a plurality of fixing bars that are fixed in a sliding direction and are immovably fixed to the steel pieces, and are extended in the sliding direction and transported. A plurality of movable bars movable in the direction, and the steel pieces placed on the plurality of fixed bars are lifted using the plurality of movable bars and conveyed to the downstream side. The steel pieces (steel dogs) sorted in (1) can be slid onto the fixed bar on the downstream side.

In other words, in the stacking table 6, the steel pieces sorted by the sorting means 5 become up to five dogs and are arranged on the fixed table of the stacking table 6 along the transport direction.
In this way, the operator sequentially performs a dispensing operation using the crane 7 on the steel piece dogs arranged on the stacking table 6 to move the dogs on the stacking table 6 to the pallet 8. The steel slab moved to the pallet 8 is conveyed to a lower process such as a wire rolling mill.

However, when the number of steel pieces that can be placed on the pallet 8 is five, in order to efficiently convey the steel pieces on the pallet 8, it is necessary to place as many steel pieces as possible on the pallet 8. preferable.
For example, when the dogs stored in the respective stacking bases 6 have the maximum number of five steel pieces, if the dogs are discharged to the pallet 8 as they are, the pallet 8 ( 5 pallets 8) can be made.

  However, when the number of dogs to be dispensed is less than five, a pallet 8 with five stacks cannot be made by only one movement of the crane 7. In such a case, the first stacking table 61 or the second stacking table 62 is searched for the same type of dog as the dog to be dispensed, and the found dogs are combined to form a 5-stack pallet 8. . If it does in this way, it will become possible to pay out 5 pallets 8 to a lower process stably.

By the way, how many dogs are made with respect to the steel slabs manufactured on the production line 1 depends on the above-mentioned attributes such as “cast”, “charge”, “lot”, and “sample collection”. , It is influenced by which attribute is adopted as the sorting condition. In other words, the more attributes that are used for sorting the dogs, the more dogs that are made.
However, the number of dogs described above is equal to the number of payout operations on the crane 7, and the work load on the crane 7 increases as the number of dogs increases. For example, if too many dogs are made for the steel slabs produced on the production line 1, the work of the crane 7 becomes too much to make it difficult to continue production stably.

  However, if the number of attributes used in sorting conditions for sorting dogs is reduced too much, a piece of steel with different attributes tends to be included in one dog, causing manufacturing conditions to vary when operating in the lower process. End up. Therefore, in the conventional production line 1, the operator has determined sorting conditions as needed based on past results and experience. Such sorting conditions are strictly determined based on the processing capacity of the crane 7 and the like. It was not enough.

  Therefore, in the grouping method for intermediate products according to the present invention, how the number of dogs changes in advance when the number of attributes employed in the sorting condition is changed is calculated in advance. Specifically, the number of dogs created for the steel slab manufactured over a predetermined time in the manufacturing line 1 is calculated according to the number of attributes. The number of dogs calculated in this way is equal to the number of operations of the crane 7 required for a predetermined time or corresponds to the number of operations of the crane 7. Therefore, the sorting conditions are strictly set so that the calculated number of dogs does not exceed the predetermined processing capacity of the crane 7, that is, the upper limit of the number of operations of the crane 7 that can be executed in a predetermined time. It makes it possible to decide.

Note that the number of dogs corresponding to the number of attributes employed in the sorting conditions is nothing other than creating a table as shown in FIG. Therefore, hereinafter, the sorting condition determination method of the present invention will be described using the table of FIG.
Figure 3 shows the number of dogs when “cast”, “charge”, “lot”, and “sample collection” are selected as the attributes to be used for the sorting conditions and these attributes are used as the sorting conditions. It shows what will be created.

  This attribute has a priority when it is used for sorting conditions. In the table of FIG. 3, the priority decreases in the order of “cast”, “charge”, “lot”, and “sample collection”. ing. Then, as the number of selected attributes increases, the level of sorting conditions increases. That is, in the case of FIG. 3, when the sorting condition (constraint condition) is “level 1”, only the “cast” attribute selected with the highest priority is adopted as the sorting condition. In the case of "", the attribute of "charge" is also adopted as the sorting condition in addition to "cast". As described above, when the level of the sorting condition is increased, the number of attributes employed in the sorting condition is also increased.

  As shown in FIG. 3, when sorting is performed only with the attribute “cast” (in the case of level 1), 32 pieces of “cast” are “1” in the casting time from 0 seconds to 3720 seconds. Casted. Next, 48 pieces of steel with “2” in the “cast” are cast in the casting time from 3840 seconds to 9480 seconds. Therefore, if a dog is created with 5 pieces of steel slabs as one unit, the slabs of steel slab numbers 1 to 5 are called “1” dogs, and the steel slabs of steel slab numbers 6 to 10 are called “2” dogs. In this way, six dogs are formed for the steel slabs of steel slab numbers 1-30. However, when the billet number is 33, the “cast” is switched from 1 to 2, so the billets of the billets Nos. 31 and 32 are the same dog, but the billets after the billet number 33 need to be different dogs. There is. Therefore, a new dog is formed with respect to the steel slabs having the steel slab numbers 33 to 37. In this way, when sorting is performed using only the attribute “cast”, 17 dogs are formed in total.

  On the other hand, when sorting is performed with the attributes of “cast” and “charge” (in the case of level 2), 16 pieces of steel with “charge” of “1” are cast for a casting time of 0 to 1800 seconds. There are 16 slabs with a “charge” of “2” between 1920 seconds and 3720 seconds, and 16 slabs with a “charge” of “3” between 3840 seconds and 5640 seconds of casting time. Thus, the same charge is cast in units of 16 pieces. Therefore, if a dog is created with 5 pieces of steel slabs as one unit, the way of sorting the dogs up to the steel slabs of steel slab numbers 1 to 16 is the same as when only the “cast” is sorted. However, since the “charge” is switched from 1 to 2 from the billet number 17, the billet 16 and the billets after the billet number 17 need to be different dogs. In this way, when sorting with two attributes of “Cast” and “Charge”, the number of dogs is larger than when sorting with only the attribute of “Cast”, and only 20 dogs in total. Will be formed.

Furthermore, looking at the results of level 3 and level 4 in Table 3, it can be seen that more dogs (about twice as many dogs) are formed than levels 1 and 2, and the number of dogs It can be seen that it increases as the value rises.
In other words, the more attributes used in the sorting conditions, the more the level increases, the more dogs increase from “17” → “20” → “25” → “33”. The number will also increase.

  If the processing capacity of the crane 7 used in the production line 1 of the first embodiment is 7 minutes (420 seconds) on an average of 1 dog, it is 420 × 25 to carry a level 3 “25” dog. = 10500 seconds are required. However, it takes 9480 seconds for the 80 steel pieces in Table 3 to be conveyed. This is because the operation of the crane 7 is delayed 1000 seconds after the steel piece number 80 is sent. Means complete. If attributes “Cast” and “Charge” are used as sorting conditions, the calculated number of dogs will be up to “20”, and the time required to carry the dog will be 420 × 20 = 8400 seconds. Thus, when the dog is moved, the operation of the crane 7 is not carried over to the subsequent process, and the operation of the crane 7 can be stably continued.

For this reason, in the case of Table 3, by adopting the attributes “Cast” and “Charge” as the sorting conditions, it is possible to continue stable manufacturing while suppressing variations in the manufacturing conditions between billets. It turns out that it is possible to do.
According to the method for determining sorting conditions described above, the number of attributes that can be employed in the sorting conditions can be increased as much as possible. A dog can be formed. Therefore, it becomes possible to suppress variations in manufacturing conditions between the steel pieces in the lower process.

Further, in the sorting condition determination method described above, since the number of dogs is determined in consideration of the processing capacity of the crane 7, stable production can be continued.
Furthermore, a first embodiment of the sorting condition determination support apparatus of the present invention is shown.
In the first embodiment, the time when the steel slab to be transported is transported from the equipment in the upper process (in this case, the heating furnace / rolling equipment 10), and the transport work time per time of the crane 7 What is clearly given is shown.

  However, in an actual production line, when the processing time in the heating furnace / rolling equipment 10 varies depending on the condition of the equipment of the day, the operating operator, or the conditions of the steel type to be rolled, etc. However, it occurs frequently. Moreover, the conveyance work time by the crane 7 may also fluctuate similarly. It is not easy to comprehensively grasp in advance the conditions that cause such time fluctuations. However, the sorting conditions cannot be appropriately determined as in the above-described embodiment unless the conditions under which time fluctuations occur are grasped in advance.

  However, even if it is not possible to grasp the above-mentioned fluctuations and conditions in a detailed manner, it is in charge of operating the heating furnace / rolling equipment 10 and the transport equipment that are actually targeted when determining the sorting conditions for dogs. The operator can generally grasp and predict the processing time of the heating furnace / rolling equipment and the transfer time of the transfer equipment from the operation status of the day, The sorting conditions can also be determined based on the transport time.

In such a case, the present invention takes the form of a sorting condition determination support apparatus as shown in FIG.
That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the bundle number deriving device 16 derives the attributes to be used for each sorting condition and the number of bundles obtained as a result. The bundle number presentation device 14 displays the attributes and the number of bundles to be adopted, and the operation person in charge 17 (= user) sees it, so that the operation person 17 generally grasps the upper process heating furnace / rolling equipment Based on the above processing time and the crane transport time, the sorting conditions can be determined so that the total transport work time of the crane does not exceed the total processing time of the upper process. The sort condition determination support apparatus according to the first embodiment is such that the sort conditions can be determined by inputting such sort conditions from the sort condition input apparatus.
[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment of the intermediate product grouping method and sorting condition determination support apparatus of the present invention will be described.

  In the sorting condition determination support apparatus according to the second embodiment, a knitting place 71 for temporarily storing and knitting steel slabs is provided on the entry side of the stacking table 6 (stacking conveyor) provided in the production line 1. When the number of steel pieces after sorting is less than the number constituting the bundle (dog), the sorted steel pieces are stored in the knitting place 71, and the number of steel pieces after sorting is the number constituting the dog. Is equal to, the sorted steel pieces are sent to the lower process. Then, the sorting condition determination support apparatus of the second embodiment further calculates the number of knitting places necessary for storing the steel pieces after sorting at all times, and the calculated number of knitting places is stored in the stacking table 6. When the number of knitting places 71 provided is exceeded, the steel pieces present at the knitting places 71 provided on the stacking table 6 are sent to the lower process as a dog.

As shown in FIG. 5, the production line 1 provided with the above-described determination support device of the second embodiment, in other words, the production of the second embodiment in which steel pieces are aggregated in dog units (bundle units) and conveyed to the lower process. The line 1 includes an inlet-side cooling floor conveyor (cooling floor 3), an outlet-side material collecting conveyor (stacking table 6), and a conveyor (connecting table 4) that connects the inlet and outlet sides.
In the above-described cooling floor conveyor and gathering conveyor, work such as cooling and gathering is accompanied, so it takes time to transport the billet. On the other hand, since the conveyance conveyor which connects two of a cooling floor conveyor and a material collection conveyor does not have an operation | work, conveyance time becomes short. For this reason, there are many configurations in which there are a plurality of cooling floor conveyors and collecting conveyors and a single conveyor.

Even when a plurality of cooling floor conveyors and material collecting conveyors are configured, the number of operating lines changes.
As shown in FIG. 5, in the production line 1 of the second embodiment, there are three cooling beds 3 on the entry side as places for receiving the rolled steel slabs, which are designated as “P”, “Q”, “ Let's call it R. That is, each steel slab is loaded on any one of the cooling floors 3 after the end of rolling, and is then conveyed to the material collection area on the delivery side by the conveyor. Each of the cooling beds P, Q, and R is different in length and conveying speed. For this reason, even if the sheets are stacked on the cooling floor 3 in the order of the rolling end times, the order of arrival at the gathering area where the dog knitting is actually performed may be different from the order of the rolling end times. A method for correcting such a change in order will be described below.

That is, when the arrival order of the above-mentioned steel pieces is corrected, the correction is performed according to the procedure of STEP1 to STEP4. First, “reading billet information” is performed as STEP1.
(STEP 1) Reading of billet information Table 1 is first read as STEP 1. Each steel slab in Table 1 has a steel slab number, a rolling end time, and a cooling floor 3 to be used as attributes.

  In Table 1, the same cooling bed 3 is used in succession in the order of rolling end time, and the next eight are assigned to use different cooling beds 3. In general, there are many uses of the cooling bed 3 in which several pieces of steel are continuously assigned to the same cooling bed 3 and the next several pieces are assigned to another cooling bed 3. The usage is not limited to this.

(STEP 2) Reading of conveyance time information Next, Table 2 is read. Table 2 lists the conveyance time from the rolling end time to the gathering area for each of the cooling beds P, Q, and R. STEP 2 reads this transport time.

(STEP 3) Derivation time arrival of gathering area In STEP 3, the conveyance time of each steel slab is determined based on the cooling floor 3 used by each steel slab. Then, by adding the conveyance time to the determined rolling end time, the time for reaching the gathering area of each steel slab is derived as shown in Table 3.

(STEP 4) Sorting in order of arrival time of collecting area According to the arrival time of collecting area determined in STEP 3, the steel pieces are sorted in ascending order, and Table 4 is output.

The above-described algorithm of the order of arrival of the steel pieces (operation from STEP1 to STEP4) is shown in the flowchart of FIG.
Table 2 is based on the premise that if the cooling floor 3 is assigned, the transfer time is also determined. However, other attributes added to the billet may affect the transport time. For example, when a certain steel type needs to be cooled more time than other steel types, strictly speaking, the transport time is determined by a two-dimensional matrix shown in Table 5 instead of Table 2. However, since the steel slabs rolled at the same time are usually the same steel type, in the following description, it is described that the conveyance time is determined by Table 2.

Next, it is considered whether dog knitting can be performed without clogging with the given number of cooling beds for the steel pieces flowing in the order in which the above-described correction is performed.
First, after the arrival time of the gathering area, the steel pieces are knitted into a dog and flow on the gathering conveyor. The important logistics constraints at that time are as follows.
(Restriction 1: Steel piece overtaking not possible)
After arriving at the gathering area, the steel piece behind does not overtake the steel piece preceding on the conveyor.
(Restriction condition 2: retention at the dog knitting place)
When arriving at the gathering area, each steel piece moves from the conveyor to the dog knitting location 71 as shown in FIG. Then, it holds until all the other steel pieces which comprise the same dog are gathered, and after being gathered, it is pushed out (moves) to the material collecting conveyor. In the dog knitting place 71, mixing of steel pieces constituting different dogs (steel pieces classified into different dogs) is not allowed. Therefore, the number of types of dogs that can be knitted at the dog knitting place 71 does not exceed the number of dog knitting places 71 (= the number of collecting conveyors installed).

  Even if there is a steel slab already at the dog knitting place 71, the other steel slab passes through the conveyor belt behind the steel slab placed first and the dog knitting place 71 where the steel slab is placed first. It is possible to pass. For example, in FIG. 5, even if a steel slab is present at “dog knitting location 2”, another type of subsequent steel slab passes through “dog knitting location 2” and arrives at “dog knitting location 1”. Can do.

  Now, if each dog arrives in the gathering area according to its type, there will be no problems in dog organization. For example, as shown in Table 6 (a), after 5 steel pieces of dog type “A”, 5 steel pieces of dog type “B” arrive, and then the dog type is “C”. If five pieces of steel slabs arrive, one dog knitting place 71 is sufficient. However, when other types of steel slabs arrive between the steel slabs constituting the same dog arriving at the gathering area as shown in Table 6 (b), the number of types of dogs being knitted becomes two or more and becomes plural. That is, there is no problem as long as the number of dog types being knitted is within the number of dog knitting places 71 installed. However, when the number of dog types being knitted exceeds the number of dog knitting places 71 installed, a steel piece of a dog without a destination is stuck on the conveyor. Then, subsequent steel slabs also pass through and cannot move forward, and a conveyor jam occurs.

Therefore, in the present invention, the occurrence of clogging of the conveyor is detected from the order of the steel pieces flowing into the gathering area and the result of the dog knitting.
The above-mentioned conveyor clogging is detected according to the following procedures <STEP 0> to <STEP 3>.
<STEP0> Reading <STEP0> reads Table 7 (a) that summarizes the dog knitting results of steel slabs according to the arrival order to the gathering area.

<STEP 1> Determination of the last steel slab of the dog In <STEP 1>, if each dog includes a plurality of steel slabs, among the plurality of steel slabs provided for each dog, the last one in the collecting area Determine the billet that arrived. Specifically, the dog name of each slab is examined in reverse order of the slab arrival order. If the dog name α appears for the first time, the name of the slab is “α last”. Attributes are assigned (Table 7 (b)).
<STEP2> Counting Dog Types During Editing In <STEP2>, as shown in FIG. 8, the following processing is performed in the order of arrival of steel pieces, and the number of dog types being edited is counted. Specifically, in <STEP2>, “Initial setting”, “Reading billet name and final billet flag by dog”, “Operation of type counter C”, “Maximum value counter (dog type maximum value counter) "Updating MAXC)", "Operation of arrival order counter (steel piece arrival order counter k)", and "End determination".
(1) Initial setting
・ Slab arrival order counter: k = 1
・ Editing dog type counter: C = 0
-Dog type maximum value counter: MAXC = 0
・ Number of steel pieces: M = 20
・ Number of collecting lines: WL = 2 (assuming two lines here)
(2) Reading the kth billet in arrival order Read the dog name of the kth billet in arrival order and the final bill flag by dog.
(3) Operation of type counter C The type counter C is operated from the dog of the kth steel piece in the arrival order.

・ If the slab is a dog that has not been read up to now (dog type)
Type counter: C = C + 1
・ If the billet has the attribute "... last"
Type counter: C = C-1
(4) Updating the maximum value counter MAXC When the following condition is satisfied, the maximum value counter MAXC is updated.

IF MAXC <C THEN MAXC = C
(5) Operation of arrival sequence counter k The value of the arrival sequence counter k is increased by 1.
k = k + 1
(6) Termination determination When the arrival order counter k exceeds the initial setting 20, the count operation is terminated.

When the arrival order counter k does not exceed 20, the process returns to (2) reading of the steel bill.
IF k> M Then End Return to else (2) First, this counts how many kinds of dogs are being edited when each slab arrives in the gathering area. Then, the maximum value of the dog type being edited is obtained.
Assume that there is a dog composed of one steel piece in the update of the above-described (4) maximum value counter MAXC. At that time, both the condition for increasing the type counter C and the condition for decreasing it are satisfied in (3) described above, and the value of the type counter C becomes minus 1 after plus 1, and there is no change as a whole.

Table 7 (c) shows the results of the operations (1) to (6) described above in <STEP 2>.
<STEP 3> Judgment of Clogging Material Collecting (acquiring) the number of active material collection conveyors WL, and comparing it with the maximum value counter MAXC.
As a result of comparison,
WL ≧ MAXC
If is established, it can be determined that no clogging occurs.

In this example, since the number of active material collecting conveyors WL = 2 and the maximum value counter MAXC = 3, it is determined that “material collecting clogging occurs”.
FIG. 7 shows an overall flowchart (operation from <STEP 0> to <STEP 3>) regarding the above-described processing, and FIG. 8 shows a flowchart related to the details of <STEP 2> in FIG.
Next, a method for re-knitting the dog and avoiding the collected material clogging when it is determined by the flowchart (algorithm) shown in FIG.

When grouping the above-mentioned intermediate products, the constraint condition is the following expression (1). That is, this equation (1) is derived from the point that the total dog conveyance time by the crane does not become longer than the rolling completion time.
"Total number of dogs" x "Crane transport time (per dog)"
<"Rolling completion time" (1)
From the relationship of the above-described formula (1), the total number of dogs is expressed as the following formula (1 ′).

"Total number of dogs"<"Rolling completion time" ÷ "Crane transport time (per dog)"
... (1 ')
For example, when the rolling completion time is 9480 seconds and the crane conveyance time per dog is 420 seconds, the total number of dogs is 22 or less. Here, if you select a level 2 dog train with dogs that have the same cast and charge, if the number of dogs at that time is 20 dogs, the actual number of dogs will be 2 rather than the upper limit of 22 total dogs. There will be fewer bundles.

  Looking at Table 7 (c) above, in the case of arrival order and dog knitting results shown in Table 7 (c), the dogs “A”, “B” and “C” The number of dogs during knitting is three. This is because the dogs “A”, “B”, and “C” arrive after being divided. For example, the steel bill that arrives last in the dog “A” (the arrival order is “15” in Table 7 (c)). If the billet is another new dog (named dog “X1”), the dog “A” has already been knitted when the billet arrives.

FIG. 7D shows the result of applying the algorithm shown in FIG. 7 by changing the steel piece dog in the arrival order “15” in Table 7C to “X1”. As shown in FIG. 7D, the maximum value MAXC of the number of dogs being edited is “2”, which is equal to WL. Therefore, when the dog of the steel pieces in the arrival order “15” is changed to “X1”, the clogging of the collected material does not occur.
If dogs that arrive after being divided in this way are considered as different dogs, the number of dogs being knitted will decrease. Of course, on the other hand, there is a problem that the number of dogs increases, but as described above, if the actual number of dogs is smaller than the upper limit of the total number of dogs and the number of dogs is within the margin (dogs) If you can afford to increase the number), the problem of unprocessed dogs remains. Conversely, if the dog margin is zero, there is no simple and universal algorithm to eliminate gathering clogging.

Specifically, the above-described “dog division algorithm for eliminating clogging of collecting materials” is performed in the following steps [STEP 0] to [STEP 5].
[STEP0]
In [STEP 0], it is derived how many times each dog is divided and arrives at the gathering area. At this time, if the same kind of dogs arrives continuously, the number of divisions is counted as one. For example, in the case of dog “A” in Table 8 (a), the number of divisions is one because the order of arrival “1 to 4” is continuous, and the steel piece of dog “A” arrives. Since it has also arrived in order “15”, the number of divisions of the dog “A” in Table 8 (a) is “2 times” in total. In the case of the dog “B”, since the arrival order is “5 to 6”, the arrival order is “8”, and the arrival order is “10 to 11”, the division of the dog “B” in Table 8 (a) is performed. The number is "3 times" in total.

[STEP1]
[STEP 1] is used to select the “row” in the table having the highest number of dogs being edited. For example, in the example of Table 8 (b), when the number of dogs being edited is “3” when the steel piece arrives, the value of the number of dogs being edited is the highest in the table. Thus, when the “row” having the highest value of the number of dogs being edited is shown in gray, it is as shown in Table 8 (b). If there are a plurality of “rows” in which the number of dogs being edited is the highest, it is preferable to select all the locations.
[STEP2]
[STEP 2] is for extracting the dog type being edited in the selected “row”. For example, looking at the dogs being organized in Table 8 (b), ie, the selected “rows” shown in gray, the dog types of these “rows” are “A”, “B”, and “C”. Therefore, “A”, “B”, and “C” are extracted as shown in Table 8 (c).
[STEP3]
[STEP 3] is for extracting the dog type in which the final steel bill flag is first raised from the targets extracted in [STEP 2] and excluding them from the dog change target.

For example, among the dogs “A”, “B”, and “C” extracted in Table 8 (c), it is the dog “B” that has the final reaching billet flag first. Excluded from the change target (see Table 8 (d)).
[STEP4]
[STEP 4] is for extracting the dog type that is first edited from the targets extracted in [STEP 2] except those excluded in [STEP 3].

For example, among the dogs “A”, “B”, and “C” extracted in Table 8 (c), the dog “B” is excluded, and the remaining dogs are “A” and “C”. Since the dog to be edited first is the dog “A”, the dog “A” is the dog to be changed (see Table 8 (e)).
[STEP5]
For [STEP5], the dog on the front side that was divided in [STEP4] is set to “dog organization complete” and the dog on the back side is another new dog (named X1), In other words, change to a different dog.

For example, in the dog “A” in Table 8 (f), the steel pieces in the arrival order “1 to 4” are one dog, and the arrival piece “4” is the final steel piece in the dog “A”. The steel piece arriving in the arrival order “15” is another new dog “X1”.
[STEP6]
[STEP 6] repeats [STEP 1] to [STEP 5] until the maximum number of dogs being edited MAXC ≦ WL.

  The algorithm shown in FIG. 7 is applied again, and the process is repeated until the maximum number of dogs being edited MAXC ≦ WL. For example, as shown in Table 9, even when the first processing (repeating [STEP1] to [STEP5]) is performed, the maximum number of dogs being edited MAXC> WL is shown in Table 10. As described above, [STEP 1] to [STEP 5] are repeated. In this way, as shown in Table 10 (f), the maximum value MAXC of the number of dogs being edited becomes WL or less, and it becomes possible to prevent the occurrence of clogging.

FIG. 9 shows an overall flowchart of the above-described “dog division algorithm for eliminating clogging of collecting materials”, in other words, [STEP 1] to [STEP 6].
As described above, by performing the processing performed in the sorting condition determination support device of the second embodiment, for steel pieces that have differences in attributes such as cast, charge, lot, sample collection, etc., When sorting steel slabs having the same attributes as bundles, the number of sorted steel slab bundles does not increase too much, and stable production can be continued in the lower process.

  The embodiment disclosed this time should be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. In particular, in the embodiment disclosed this time, matters that are not explicitly disclosed, for example, operating conditions and operating conditions, various parameters, dimensions, weights, volumes, and the like of a component deviate from a range that a person skilled in the art normally performs. Instead, values that can be easily assumed by those skilled in the art are employed.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Production line 2 Continuous casting machine 3 Cooling bed 4 Transport table 5 Sorting means 6 Stacking stand 7 Crane 8 Pallet 10 Heating furnace and rolling equipment 11 Cooling bed fixed bar 12 Cooling bed movable bar 13 Transport roll 14 Number of dogs according to sorting conditions Presentation device 15 Sorting condition input device 16 Person in charge of operation 17 Person in charge of operation 51 First sorting means 52 Second sorting means 61 First stacking table 62 Second stacking table 71 Dog knitting place B Billet D Dog

Claims (4)

The steel slabs sent from the upper process, such as a continuous casting machine or heating furnace / rolling equipment, are temporarily stored separately in bundles, which are transport units in the crane, based on predetermined sorting conditions. Regarding the production line for sending a bundle of steel pieces to the lower process with the crane, when determining the sorting conditions for sorting the steel pieces sent from the upper process into bundles,
Of the plurality of attributes of the billet, using at least one attribute as a sorting condition, the billet is divided into bundles,
The intermediate product grouping method characterized by adopting only the number of attributes whose number of bundles, which is the number of the divided bundles, is equal to or less than the processing capacity of the crane. As the processing capacity of the crane, when the crane can carry N bundles,
The intermediate product grouping method according to claim 1, wherein the sorting condition is an attribute of the billet that enables the billet to be sorted into N bundles or less. The steel slabs sent from the upper process such as a continuous casting machine or heating furnace / rolling equipment are temporarily stored separately in bundles that are transport units in the crane based on the specified sorting conditions. With regard to a production line for sending a bundle of slabs to the lower process with the crane, in a determination support device for sorting conditions for sorting the slabs sent from the upper process into bundles,
Among a plurality of attributes of the steel slab, at least one attribute is used as a sorting condition, the steel slab is divided into bundles, and a bundle number deriving device for deriving the number of bundles;
A bundle number display device that displays a pair of the attribute used and the number of bundles generated;
A user who sees the display inputs a sorting condition input device that inputs attributes used for sorting.
A support device for determining sorting conditions, comprising: A knitting place for temporarily storing and knitting the steel slab is provided on the entry side of the stacking table provided in the production line,
If the number of steel pieces after sorting is less than the number constituting the bundle, store the sorted steel pieces in the knitting place,
When the number of steel pieces after sorting becomes equal to the number constituting the bundle, the sorted steel pieces are to be sent to a lower process,
further,
Always calculate the number of knitting locations necessary to store the sorted steel slabs,
When the calculated number of knitting locations exceeds the number of knitting locations provided on the stacking table, the steel pieces existing at the knitting site provided on the stacking table are sent as a bundle to the lower process. The sorting condition determination support apparatus according to claim 3.