JP6657521B2 - Sorting condition determination support device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an apparatus for supporting the determination of sorting conditions for intermediate products. More specifically, the present invention relates to a slab cast in a continuous casting facility or a slab rolled in a lump mill, and to a technique for determining sorting conditions when sorting these slabs and slabs. Things.

The present invention is a method applicable to cast slabs as well as steel slabs, but the following description is made using steel slabs as an example.
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a production line for processing a material such as a billet into a product such as a wire rod, the billet conveyed from an upper heating / rolling process or the like is temporarily stocked, and the stock is taken from the stocked billet. A transport system that transports only a predetermined slab to the downstream in accordance with the processing schedule of the wire rod rolling facility from the downstream to the downstream is adopted.

As a technique applicable to such a billet transfer system, for example, a technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known.
In other words, the transport system of Patent Document 1 stores the transported steel bar first in the buffer stock site when the steel bar of the product transported from the upper process is loaded into the automatic warehouse, and changes the loading efficiency of the automatic warehouse. The system is designed to carry bar steel to an automatic warehouse based on the system. When it is determined whether or not it is possible to carry in the automated warehouse based on the outer shape and length of the steel bar measured by the detector, it is determined that the carrying can be carried in Is carried out to the automatic warehouse in the lower process, and if it is determined that the carry-in is impossible, the correction is performed at the correction place.

  The transfer system disclosed in Patent Document 1 relates to a steel bar of a product to be stored in an automatic warehouse, but has a configuration that can be sufficiently used even when transferring a billet in the above-described wire rod production line.

JP 2003-192196 A

In the above-mentioned slab rolling line, the steel slabs conveyed from the upper process may include those having different attributes (for example, composition components, casting conditions, the presence or absence of sampling). The steel slabs having different attributes as described above are grouped for each attribute under a predetermined sorting condition, sorted as a bundle of steel slabs, and sent to the lower process.
Here, the relationship between the above-described attributes and “cast”, “charge”, and “lot” used in the following description will be described.

First, steels having the same “charge” have the same composition. A series of several "charges" will be referred to as a "cast". However, even if the "cast" is the same, "charges" having different composition components may be continuously formed. However, when the "cast" is the same, it is often the case that the components are substantially the same.
Then, the “charge” is divided into several “lots”. In the same continuous casting equipment, the slab cast at the beginning (more precisely, the slab obtained by rolling and cutting the slab cast at the top, the same applies hereinafter), the slab cast at the middle, The production conditions (for example, casting speed, fluctuation of the molten metal level in the continuous casting machine) may differ depending on the steel slab cast in the casting. “Lot” indicates the classification.

  Explaining the inclusion relation of “cast”, “charge”, and “lot”, if the “lot” is the same, the “charge” is the same, and if the “charge” is the same, the “cast” is the same. Lastly, in the sampling, there is a piece of sample that is sampled and another piece that is not sampled in the same “cast”, “charge”, and “lot”, and these are not related to the inclusion relation.

By the way, as described above, the billets having the different attributes are grouped for each attribute under a predetermined sorting condition, sorted as a bundle of billets, and sent to the lower process. It is difficult to properly set the sorting conditions when sorting pieces into bundles, and if the sorting conditions are too strict,
The number of bundles of billets would be enormous. Naturally, if the number of bundles of billets becomes enormous and exceeds the ability of the unloading means for unloading the bundles to the lower process, it becomes difficult to operate the production line stably.

Conversely, if the setting of the sorting conditions is excessively relaxed, the number of bundles of billets can be reduced, but the difference occurs in the attributes between billets of one bundle, and stable processing with little variation (processing in the lower process) ) Is difficult to do.
The technique of Patent Document 1 does not correspond to such a problem. That is, in the transfer system of Patent Document 1, if there is a problem with the outer shape and length of the incoming bar, the bar is corrected at the correction site, but in principle, all the bars discharged into the automatic warehouse have the same shape and physical properties. No separation or sorting of the steel bar itself is performed according to attributes.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and has been made by using a steel slab having the same attribute with respect to a steel slab having a difference in attributes (for example, composition components, casting conditions, the presence or absence of sampling) and the like. and to provide a decision support system for sorting conditions for sorting the bundles.

In order to solve the above problems, the sorting condition determination support device of the present invention temporarily stores the steel slab sent from the upper process in a bundle which is a transport unit in a crane based on a predetermined sorting condition. Regarding the production line for sending the temporarily stored bundles of billets to the lower process by the crane, in the sorting condition determination support device for sorting the billets sent from the upper process into bundles, the billet has A bundle number deriving device that divides the steel slab into bundles and derives the number of bundles using at least one attribute among the plurality of attributes as a sorting condition, the attribute used, and the number of bundles generated. Are displayed in pairs, and a sorting condition input device is provided for inputting an attribute used for sorting by a user who has viewed the display.

  Preferably, a knitting place for temporarily storing and knitting the slab is provided on an entrance side of an accumulation table provided in the production line, and the number of the slabs after the sorting is smaller than that of the bundle. In the case of less than the number constituting, the sorted billet is stored in the knitting place the billet, and when the number of billets after the sorting is equal to the number constituting the bundle, The sorted billet is to be sent to a lower process, and furthermore, the number of knitting places necessary for storing the sorted billet is constantly calculated, and the calculated number of knitting places is calculated by When the number of knitting places provided in the knitting table is exceeded, the steel pieces existing in the knitting places provided in the stacking table are sent as a bundle to a lower process.

According to the sorting condition determination support device of the present invention, cast, charge, lot, for a steel slab having differences in attributes such as the presence or absence of sample collection, when sorting steel slabs having the same attributes as a bundle, The number of sorted billet bundles does not become too large, and stable production can be continued in the lower process.

It is a perspective view of the production line of a 1st embodiment. It is a top view of the manufacturing line of a 1st embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram summarizing the relationship between the number of attributes and the number of dogs used for sorting conditions in a table format. It is a figure showing the decision support device of the sorting condition of a 1st embodiment. It is a top view of the manufacturing line of a 2nd embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the reading procedure of the billet information performed by the determination support apparatus of the sorting condition of 2nd Embodiment. It is a flow chart which shows a clogging judgment procedure of an accumulation stand performed by a sorting condition decision support device of a 2nd embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure which calculates the number of knitting places required for storing the billet after sorting. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure which conveys a steel piece so that the calculated number of knitting places does not exceed the number of knitting places.

[First Embodiment]
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of a sorting condition determination support device of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
1 and 2 show a production line 1 which is an example (first embodiment) of a sorting condition determination support device of the present invention. The production line 1 is for producing a steel slab (see B in FIG. 1), and has a configuration in which a steel slab rolled by a heating furnace / rolling facility 10 is first sent to a cooling floor 3 to be cooled. I have. In the production line 1, the billet cooled by the cooling floor 3 is transported by the transport table 4 and sorted by the sorting means 5 provided on the transport table 4 on the outlet side in the transport direction. In this sorting means 5, the billets are sorted into a plurality of bundles of billets according to the sorting conditions, and the sorted bundles of billets are temporarily stored in the stacking table 6. Note that this bundle of billets is referred to as a “dog (see D in FIG. 1)”, and bills are stored in the stacking table 6 in units of a plurality (N) of dogs. The steel slabs thus stored in dog units are transported one by one by the crane 7 and transferred to a pallet 8 or the like, and then sent to a lower process such as a wire rod rolling machine 9.

Next, the continuous casting machine 2 (continuous casting machine), the heating furnace / rolling equipment 10, the cooling floor 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. I do.
The continuous casting machine 2 (continuous casting machine 2) continuously casts a slab such as bloom. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the cut slab is heated, rolled, cut into a steel slab of a predetermined size in a heating furnace / rolling line 10 shown in the figure, and transferred to a cooling floor 3. Is done. The billet is given various attributes by passing through the steps of casting, heating and rolling.

In the first embodiment, a steel slab to be rolled in the heating furnace / rolling line 10 of the present invention will be described as an example, but the present invention is applied to a sorting condition for a slab. Alternatively, the present invention can be applied to sorting conditions for slabs, and the shapes of steel slabs, cast slabs, and slabs are not limited to rectangular parallelepipeds, and can be similarly applied to columns.
The cooling floor 3 is a facility for cooling the steel slab sent from the heating furnace / rolling equipment 10, and extends in the sliding direction of the steel slab and extends in the sliding direction with a plurality of fixed bars 11 fixed immovably. And a plurality of movable bars 12 movable in the transport direction. The plurality of fixing bars 11 support loads applied from the slab at a plurality of locations along the longitudinal direction of the slab. The plurality of movable bars 12 are arranged between the plurality of fixed bars 11 at a distance from the fixed bar 11. The movable bar 12 is configured to be able to move up and down in the vertical direction. The movable bar 12 is configured to lift the conveyed steel piece, convey it to the downstream side, and slide on the fixed bar 11 on the downstream side. A cooling fan that blows cooling air (for example, room temperature air) to the steel pieces placed on the cooling floor 3 is provided below the cooling floor 3, and includes a fixed bar 11 and a movable bar 12. The cooling air sent from the space can accelerate the cooling of the billet.

  The transfer table 4 places the steel slab cooled on the cooling floor 3 on a plurality of transfer rolls 13 arranged in a horizontal direction, and uses the rotation of the plurality of transfer rolls 13 to move the steel slab from the cooling floor 3 to the accumulation table 6. To be transported. Specifically, the transfer table 4 is configured to transfer the billet in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction (sliding direction) of the billet on the cooling floor 3 and to move the billet in a predetermined distance in the sliding direction. It has a plurality of transport rolls 13 that are opened and arranged in a horizontal direction. Each of the plurality of transport rolls 13 is rotatably mounted around an axis oriented in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the billet is transported, and is disposed at substantially the same height in the vertical direction, and the billet is substantially removed. It can be moved horizontally. The transfer table 4 is provided so as to connect between the cooling floor 3 and a sorting means 5 described later, and is capable of transferring the steel slab cooled by the cooling floor 3 to the sorting means 5 described later. The billet thus conveyed on the conveyance table 4 is sorted by the sorting means 5 in accordance with the sorting conditions, and transferred to the stacking table 6.

The sorting means 5 is configured to move the steel slab placed on the transport table 4 to a predetermined position on the stacking table 6 according to sorting conditions described later, and sort the steel slab. Production line 1 of the present embodiment
Has a configuration in which the steel slabs are stored separately on two stackers 6, and sorting means 5 is provided for each stacker 6.
Further, the production line 1 of the first embodiment is provided with two stacking tables 6 for transferring the billets, and the sorting means 5 is provided on each of the two stacking tables 6. Specifically, the stacking table 6 located on the upstream side (the left side in FIG. 1) of the transfer direction along the transfer direction of the transfer table 4 is referred to as a “first stacking table 61”. The sorting means 5 for moving the billet is referred to as "first sorting means 51". The stacking table 6 located on the downstream side (the right side in FIG. 1) in the transport direction is referred to as “second stacking table 62”, and the sorting means 5 for moving the steel slab to the second stacking table 62 is referred to as “second sorting”. Means 52 ".

In the sorting means 5 of the first embodiment, which of the first sorting means 51 and the second sorting means 52 is used, or where the steel slab is placed on the first stacking table 61 or the second stacking table 62. Whether to transfer is determined by sorting conditions described later.
The stacking table 6 is a place where the steel pieces sorted by the sorting means 5 are stored (stacked) in single or plural pieces as one unit. The storage unit of the steel slab at the time of storing the steel slab in the stacking table 6 is called a "dog", and in the process after the stacking stool 6, the steel slab is transported or processed in a dog unit. This dog is made up of a predetermined number (N pieces) of steel slabs having common attributes such as “cast”, “charge”, “lot”, and “sample collection”. The number of steel slabs included in this embodiment is a maximum of five.

  The stacking table 6 has the same structure as the cooling floor 3 described above, and includes a plurality of fixing bars extending in the sliding direction of the billet and fixed immovably, and extending in the sliding direction and transporting. A plurality of movable bars capable of moving in the directions, and lifts the steel piece placed on the plurality of fixed bars by using the plurality of movable bars and conveys it to the downstream side. Can be slid on a fixed bar on the downstream side.

That is, 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.
The operator uses the crane 7 to sequentially pay out the dogs of the billets arranged on the stacking table 6 in this manner, and moves the dogs of the stacking table 6 to the pallet 8. The billet moved to the pallet 8 is conveyed to a lower process such as a wire rolling mill.

However, when the number of billets that can be placed on the pallet 8 is five, it is necessary to place five billets on the pallet 8 as much as possible in order to efficiently transport the billet on the pallet 8. preferable.
For example, when the dog stored in each stacking table 6 has the maximum number of five steel pieces, the dog is paid out to the pallet 8 as it is, and the pallet 8 composed of five steel pieces ( A pallet 8) of five stacks can be made.

  However, when the number of dogs to be paid out is less than five, the pallet 8 of five piles cannot be made only by one movement of the crane 7. In such a case, a dog of the same kind as the dog to be paid out is searched for in the first stacking stand 61 or the second stacking stand 62, and the found dogs are combined to form a five-stack pallet 8. . In this way, it is possible to stably pay out the five-stack pallet 8 to the lower process.

By the way, how many dogs are made with respect to the billet manufactured by the manufacturing line 1 depends on the attributes such as “cast”, “charge”, “lot”, and “sample collection” described above. And which attribute is used for the sorting condition. In other words, the more attributes are employed in the sorting conditions for sorting dogs, the more dogs are created.
However, the number of dogs described above is equal to the number of payout operations performed by 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 on the steel slab manufactured on the manufacturing line 1, the work of the crane 7 becomes too large, and it becomes difficult to stably continue the production.

However, if the number of attributes used in the sorting conditions for sorting dogs is too small, one dog can easily contain billets with different attributes, which may cause variations in manufacturing conditions when operating in the lower process. Would. Therefore, in the conventional production line 1, the sorting conditions are determined by the operator at any time based on past results and experiences. However, such sorting conditions are strictly determined based on the processing capacity of the crane 7 and the like. Instead, it was inadequate.

  Therefore, in the method of grouping intermediate products according to the present invention, how the number of dogs changes when the number of attributes used for sorting conditions is changed is calculated in advance. Specifically, the number of dogs created for a billet 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 or corresponds to the number of operations of the crane 7 required for a predetermined time. Therefore, the sorting conditions are strictly controlled 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 performed in a predetermined time. It allows you to decide.

Note that the number of dogs corresponding to the number of attributes used in the sorting condition is nothing but creating a table as shown in FIG. Therefore, the method of determining the sorting condition of the present invention will be described below with reference to the table of FIG.
Fig. 3 shows the selection of "Cast", "Charge", "Lot", and "Sample collection" as the attributes to be used in the sorting conditions, and the number of dogs when these attributes are used as the sorting conditions. It indicates whether it is created.

  It should be noted that this attribute has a priority when employed in the sorting conditions, and in the table of FIG. 3, the priority is lowered in the order of “cast”, “charge”, “lot”, and “sample collection”. ing. Then, as the number of selected attributes increases, the level of the sorting condition increases. That is, in the case of FIG. 3, when the sorting condition (restriction condition) is “level 1”, only the attribute of “cast” selected with the highest priority is adopted as the sorting condition, and “level 2” is selected. In the case of "", the attribute of "charge" in addition to "cast" is employed in the sorting condition. As described above, as the level of the sorting condition increases, the number of attributes used in the sorting condition also increases.

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

  On the other hand, when the sorting is performed with the attributes of “cast” and “charge” (in the case of level 2), 16 pieces of “1” of the “charge” are cast in the casting time 0 to 1800 seconds. 16 pieces of steel with "charge" of "2" from 1920 to 3720 seconds, and 16 pieces of "3" with "charge" from 3840 seconds to 5640 seconds of casting time Thus, the same charge is cast in units of 16 pieces. Therefore, if a dog is created with five steel pieces as one unit, the way of sorting the dogs up to the steel pieces of the steel piece numbers 1 to 16 is the same as that in the case of sorting only by "cast". However, since the "charge" is switched from 1 to 2 from the billet number 17, the billet of the billet number 16 and the billet of the billet number 17 and thereafter 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 bundles of dogs in total Will be formed.

Further, looking at the results at level 3 and level 4 in FIG. 3 , it can be seen that more dogs (about twice as many dogs) are formed as compared to level 1 and level 2, and the number of dogs is It can be seen that the number increases as the number rises.
In other words, as the number of attributes used in the sorting conditions increases, in other words, as the level increases, the number of dogs increases from “17” → “20” → “25” → “33”, and the operation of the crane 7 is increased. The number is also increasing.

If the processing capacity of the crane 7 used in the production line 1 of the first embodiment is 7 minutes (420 seconds) on average for one dog, 420 × 25 is required to transport the level 3 “25” dog. = 10500 seconds is required. However, it takes 9480 seconds for the steel slab 80 of FIG. 3 to be conveyed, which is 1000 seconds after the slab of the slab No. 80 is sent. Means complete. If the attributes “Cast” and “Charge” are used as sorting conditions, the calculated number of dogs is up to “20”, and the time required to transport the dog is 420 × 20 = 8400 seconds. Therefore, 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.

Therefore, in the example of FIG. 3 , by adopting the attributes “cast” and “charge” as the sorting conditions, it is possible to suppress the variation in the manufacturing conditions between the billets and to continue the stable manufacturing. It turns out that it becomes possible to do.
According to the above-described method for determining the sorting conditions, the number of attributes that can be adopted for the sorting conditions can be increased as much as possible. Dogs can be formed. For this reason, it is possible to suppress variations in the manufacturing conditions between the billets in the lower process.

Further, in the above-described method of determining the sorting conditions, the number of dogs is determined in consideration of the processing capacity of the crane 7, so that stable production can be continued.
Further, a first embodiment of a sorting condition determination support device according to the present invention will be described.
In the first embodiment, the time at which the billet to be transported is transported from the equipment in the upper step (in this case, the heating furnace / rolling equipment 10), and the transport work time per crane 7 operation. Shown what is clearly given.

  However, in an actual production line, when the processing time in the heating furnace / rolling equipment 10 fluctuates according to the state of the equipment on that day, or according to the operating operator, or depending on conditions such as the type of steel to be rolled. But it happens frequently. In addition, the transfer operation time by the crane 7 may be similarly varied. It is not easy to comprehensively grasp in advance the conditions under which such time fluctuations occur. However, the sorting conditions cannot be appropriately determined as in the above-described embodiment, unless the conditions under which the time variation occurs are grasped in advance.

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

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

In the sorting condition determination support device of the second embodiment, a knitting place 71 for temporarily storing and knitting billets is provided on the entry side of the stacking table 6 (stacking conveyor) provided in the production line 1. If the number of sorted billets is less than the number constituting the bundle (dog), the sorted billets are stored in the knitting place 71, and the number of sorted bills constitutes the dog. When it becomes equal to the above, the sorted slab is sent to the lower process. Then, the sorting condition determination support device of the second embodiment further constantly calculates the number of knitting locations required to store the sorted billets, and the calculated number of knitting locations is stored in the stacking table 6. When the number of the knitting locations 71 provided exceeds the number of knitting locations 71, the steel pieces existing at the knitting locations 71 provided on the stacking table 6 are sent to the lower process as dogs.

As shown in FIG. 5, the manufacturing line 1 in which the above-described determination support device of the second embodiment is provided, in other words, the manufacturing of the second embodiment in which billets are collected in dog units (bundle units) and conveyed to the lower process The line 1 includes a cooling floor conveyor (cooling floor 3) on the input side, a collecting conveyor (stacking table 6) on the output side, and a transport conveyor (transport table 4) connecting the input side and the output side.
In the above-mentioned cooling floor conveyor and collecting conveyor, since the work such as cooling and collecting is involved, it takes time to transport the billet. On the other hand, the transfer conveyor that connects the cooling floor conveyor and the collection conveyor has no work, and thus the transfer time is shortened. Therefore, there are many configurations in which there are a plurality of cooling floor conveyors and a collecting conveyor, and a single conveyor is a single line.

Note that the number of operating lines varies even when a plurality of cooling floor conveyors and collection conveyors are configured.
As shown in FIG. 5, the production line 1 of the second embodiment has three cooling floors 3 on the entrance side as places for receiving the rolled slabs, which are referred to as “P”, “Q”, and “Q”. R ". In other words, each slab is loaded on one of the cooling floors 3 after the end of rolling, and then conveyed by the conveyor to the collecting area on the delivery side. The cooling floors P, Q, and R have different lengths and different conveying speeds. For this reason, even if they are stacked on the cooling floor 3 in the order of the rolling end times, the order of arrival at the collection area where dog knitting is actually performed may be different from the order of the rolling end times. A method for compensating for such a change in order will be described below.

That is, when the above-described arrival order of the billets is adjusted, the adjustment is performed according to the procedure of STEP1 to STEP4. First, "reading of billet information" is performed as STEP1.
(STEP 1) Reading of billet information As STEP 1, Table 1 is read first. Each of the slabs in Table 1 has a slab number, a rolling end time, and a cooling floor 3 to be used as attributes.

  In addition, in Table 1, in order of the rolling end time, the same cooling floor 3 is used successively for the eight cooling floors, and the next eight cooling floors are allocated to use different cooling floors 3. In general, there are many uses of the cooling floor 3 in which several billets are successively allocated to the same cooling floor 3 and the next several steel bills are allocated to another cooling floor 3 as described above. The usage is not limited to this.

(STEP 2) Reading of transport time information Next, Table 2 is read. Table 2 shows the transport time from the rolling end time to the collection area for each of the cooling floors P, Q, and R. STEP 2 reads the transport time.

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

(STEP 4) Sorting in order of arrival time in the collection area The billets are sorted in ascending order according to the arrival time in the collection area determined in STEP 3, and Table 4 is output.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the algorithm of the order of arrival of the billets (operations from STEP 1 to STEP 4).
Table 2 is based on the premise that the transfer time is determined if the cooling floor 3 is allocated. However, other attributes added to the billet may affect the transport time. For example, if one steel type needs to be cooled more slowly than another steel type, strictly speaking, the transport time is determined not by Table 2 but by the two-dimensional matrix shown in Table 5. However, usually, the billets to be simultaneously rolled are often of the same steel type.

Next, it is considered whether or not dog knitting can be performed on the steel slabs flowing in the order in which the above-described compensation has been performed without clogging with the given number of cooling floors.
First, after the arrival time in the collection area, the billets are knitted into dogs and flow on the collection conveyor. Important logistical constraints at that time are as follows.
(Restriction 1: No overtaking of billets)
After arriving at the logging area, the preceding slab will not overtake the preceding slab on the conveyor.
(Constraint 2: Retention at the dog formation location)
Upon reaching the collecting area, each billet moves from the conveyor to the dog knitting location 71 as shown in FIG. Therefore, the other steel pieces constituting the same dog are held until they are all aligned, and after being aligned, they are extruded (moved) to a collecting conveyor. In the dog knitting place 71, mixing of steel pieces constituting different dogs (steel pieces sorted into different dogs) is not allowed. Therefore, the number of types of dogs that can be knitting at the dog knitting place 71 does not exceed the number of dog knitting places 71 installed (= the number of collection conveyors).

  In addition, even if there is already a billet in the dog knitting place 71, another billet passes through the dog knitting place 71 where the billet is placed first through the transport conveyor behind the billet placed earlier. It is possible to pass. For example, in FIG. 5, even if a billet exists at “dog knitting place 2”, another succeeding steel billet passes through “dog knitting place 2” and arrives at “dog knitting place 1”. Can be.

  By the way, if the dogs arrive in the gathering area collectively for each type, no problem occurs in the formation of the dogs. For example, as shown in Table 6 (a), five steel pieces with the dog type "A" arrive after the five steel pieces with the dog type "A", and then the dog type "C" with the dog type "C" If five billets arrive, one dog knitting location 71 is sufficient. However, when another type of billet arrives between the billet groups constituting the same dog arriving at the collecting area as shown in Table 6 (b), the number of dog types being knitted becomes two or more, and a plurality of dogs are formed. In other words, 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 locations 71, dog pieces having no destination are stuck on the conveyor. Then, the succeeding steel slab cannot pass through the steel slab, and conveyer clogging occurs.

Therefore, in the present invention, occurrence of a conveyor jam is detected from the order of the billets flowing into the collecting area and the dog knitting result.
The above-described conveyor jam is detected in accordance with the following procedures <STEP0> to <STEP3>.
<STEP0> reading <STEP0> reads Table 7 (a) that summarizes the results of dog knitting of billets in the order of arrival at the collecting area.

<STEP 1> Determination of the last billet of the dog In <STEP 1>, when each dog includes a plurality of billets, among the plurality of billets provided for each dog, the last in the collecting area Determine which slab arrived. Specifically, the dog name of each slab is examined in the reverse order of slab arrival order. If the dog name of a slab is the first dog name α, the slab is named “α last”. Attributes are assigned (Table 7 (b)).
<STEP 2> Counting Dog Types During Editing In <STEP 2>, as shown in FIG. 8, the following processing is performed in the order of arrival of billets, and the number of dog types being edited is counted. Specifically, in <STEP 2>, “initial setting”, “reading of bill name and billet final bill flag”, “operation of type counter C”, “maximum value counter (dog type maximum value counter) MAXC), "operation of arrival order counter (slab arrival order counter k)", and "end determination".
(1) Initial setting
・ Sheet arrival order counter: k = 1
・ Editing dog type counter: C = 0
・ Dog type maximum value counter: MAXC = 0
・ Number of billets: M = 20
・ Number of collecting lines: WL = 2 (here, it is assumed that 2 lines)
(2) Reading the k-th steel bill in the arrival order The dog name of the k-th steel bill in the arrival order and the last billet flag for each dog are read.
(3) Operation of Type Counter C The type counter C is operated from the k-th billet dog in the order of arrival.

・ If the billet has not been read before (dog type),
Type counter: C = C + 1
-If the billet has the attribute "... last",
Type counter: C = C-1
(4) Updating of 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 the arrival order counter k The value of the arrival order counter k is increased by one.
k = k + 1
(6) Termination determination When the arrival order counter k exceeds the initial setting of 20, the counting operation is terminated.

If the arrival order counter k does not exceed 20, the process returns to (2) reading of billets.
IF k> M The end else Return to (2) First, when each billet arrives at the collecting area, how many types of dogs are being edited is counted. Then, the maximum value of the value of the dog type being edited is obtained.
It is assumed that, in the above-described (4) updating of the maximum value counter MAXC, there is a dog composed of one steel piece. At that time, both the condition for increasing and decreasing the type counter C are satisfied in (3) above, and the value of the type counter C becomes -1 after +1 and remains unchanged as a whole.

Table 7 (c) shows the results of performing the above operations (1) to (6) in <STEP 2>. <STEP 3> Determination of clogging of collecting material The number of operating collecting material conveyors WL is collected (acquired) and compared with the maximum value counter MAXC.
As a result of the comparison,
WL ≧ MAXC
Is satisfied, it can be determined that clogging of clogging does not occur.

In this example, since the number of active collecting conveyors WL = 2 and the maximum value counter MAXC = 3, it is determined that “collecting clogging occurs”.
FIG. 7 shows an overall flowchart (operations from <STEP0> to <STEP3>) of the above-described processing, and FIG. 8 shows a flowchart regarding details of <STEP2> in FIG.
Next, a method of knitting the dog again and avoiding the clogging when it is determined from the flowchart (algorithm) shown in FIG. 7 that clogging occurs will be described.

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

"Total dog count"<"Rolling completion time" / "Crane transport time (per dog)"
... (1 ')
For example, if the rolling completion time is 9480 seconds and the crane transport time per dog is 420 seconds, the total number of dogs is 22 or less. Here, when the dog formation of the level 2 where the cast and the charge are the same dog is selected and the number of dogs at that time is 20 dogs, the actual number of dogs is 2 rather than the upper limit 22 of the total number of dogs. It will be a little less.

  Looking at Table 7 (c) described above, in the case of the arrival order and dog knitting result shown in Table 7 (c), when the billet arrives, the dogs “A”, “B”, and “C” are displayed. The dog is being formed and the number of dogs being formed is three. This is because the dogs “A”, “B”, and “C” arrive in a divided manner. For example, the steel slab that arrives last in the dog “A” (the arrival order is “15” in Table 7 (c)) ) Is another new dog (named dog "X1"), the dog "A" has completed knitting when the slab arrives.

FIG. 7D shows the result of applying the algorithm shown in FIG. 7 by changing the dog of the billet having the arrival order “15” in Table 7 (c) 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. For this reason, when the dog of the slab having the arrival order “15” is changed to “X1”, the clogging of the slab does not occur.
If the dog that arrives after being divided in this way is used as another dog, the number of dogs being knitted will decrease. Of course, on the other hand, there is a problem that the number of dogs increases. However, 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 a margin, (dog If there is room to increase the number), the problem of remaining unprocessed dogs does not occur. Conversely, if the dog margin is zero, there is no simple and universal algorithm for eliminating the clogging of the harvesting.

The above-described “dog division algorithm for eliminating clogging of the collection” is specifically performed in the following [STEP0] to [STEP5].
[STEP0]
In [STEP 0], how many times each dog is divided and arrives at the collection area is derived. At this time, if dogs of the same type arrive 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 arrival order is "1" to "4", and the bill of dog "A" arrives Since the “15” -th order arrives, 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 "5-6", the arrival order is "8", and the arrival order is "10-11", the dog "B" in Table 8 (a) is divided. The number is "3 times" in total.

[STEP1]
[STEP 1] is to select a “line” in the table where the number of dogs being edited is the highest. For example, in the example of Table 8 (b), when the number of dogs being edited becomes "3" when the billet arrives, the value of the number of dogs being edited becomes the highest in the table. When the “row” in which the value of the dog number during editing is the highest is shown in gray, it is as shown in Table 8 (b). When there are a plurality of “lines” in which the number of dogs being edited is the highest, it is preferable to select all the portions.
[STEP2]
[STEP 2] is to extract the type of dog being edited in the selected “line”. For example, looking at the dogs being knitted in Table 8 (b), that is, 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 to first extract a dog type in which the final reaching steel bill flag is set from the targets extracted in [STEP 2] and exclude the dog type from the dog change targets.

For example, among the dogs “A”, “B”, and “C” extracted in Table 8 (c), the dog with the final attainment billet flag first becomes the dog “B”. Exclude from the change target (see Table 8 (d)).
[STEP4]
[STEP 4] is for extracting a dog type that is first being edited from among the targets extracted in [STEP 2] except for 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 rest are dogs “A” and “C”. Since the dog that is being edited first is the dog “A”, the dog “A” is the dog to be changed (see Table 8 (e)).
[STEP5]
[STEP 5] sets the dog on the front side of the divided dog to “dog formation completed” and sets the dog on the rear side to another new dog (named X1) with respect to the dog changed in [STEP 4]. That is, it is changed to a different dog.

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

  Again, the algorithm shown in FIG. 7 is applied, and the processing is repeated until the maximum number of dogs being edited MAXC ≦ WL. For example, as shown in Table 9, even if the result of performing the first processing (repetition of [STEP1] to [STEP5]) satisfies the maximum number of dogs MAXC> WL during editing, the result is shown in Table 10. [STEP1] to [STEP5] are repeated as described above. In this manner, as shown in Table 10 (f), the maximum value MAXC of the number of dogs being edited becomes equal to or less than WL, and it is possible to prevent the occurrence of clogging of the collection.

FIG. 9 shows an overall flowchart of the above-described “Dog split algorithm for eliminating clogging of collecting material”, 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 a billet having a difference in attributes such as cast, charge, lot, and presence or absence of sampling, When sorting billets having the same attribute as a bundle, the number of sorted billet bundles does not become too large, and stable production can be continued in the lower process.

  It should be understood that the embodiments disclosed this time are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive. In particular, in the embodiments disclosed herein, matters not explicitly disclosed, such as operating conditions and operating conditions, various parameters, dimensions, weight, and volume of components, deviate from the range usually performed by those skilled in the art. Instead, a value that can be easily assumed by a person skilled in the art is adopted.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Production line 2 Continuous casting machine 3 Cooling floor 4 Transport table 5 Sorting means 6 Stacking table 7 Crane 8 Pallet 10 Heating furnace and rolling equipment 11 Cooling floor fixed bar 12 Cooling floor movable bar 13 Transport roll 14 Number of dogs according to sorting conditions Presentation device 15 Sorting condition input device 16 Operator 17 Operator 1 51 Sorting means 52 2nd sorting means 61 1st stacking table 62 2nd stacking table 71 Dog formation location B Steel billet D Dog

Claims (2)

Based on the predetermined sorting conditions, the billets sent from the upper process are separated into bundles, which are transport units in the crane, and temporarily stored, and the bundle of temporarily stored billets is transferred to the lower process by the crane. Regarding the production line to be sent, in the sorting condition determination support device that sorts the billets sent from the upper process into bundles,
Among a plurality of attributes of the billet, using at least one or more attributes as sorting conditions, the billet is divided into bundles, and a bundle number deriving device that derives the number of bundles;
A bundle number display device for displaying the used attribute and the number of generated bundles in pairs,
A sorting condition determination support device, comprising: a sorting condition input device for allowing a user who sees the display to input an attribute used for sorting. A knitting place for temporarily storing and knitting the steel slab is provided on an entrance side of an accumulation table provided in the production line,
If the number of billets after the sorting is less than the number constituting the bundle, store the sorted billets in the knitting location,
When the number of the billets after the sorting is equal to the number constituting the bundle, the sorted bills are sent to a lower process,
further,
Always calculate the number of knitting locations required to store the sorted billets,
If the calculated number of knitting places exceeds the number of knitting places provided on the stacking platform, the steel pieces present at the knitting places provided on the stacking platform are sent to the lower process as a bundle. The apparatus for supporting the determination of sorting conditions according to claim 1 .