Process and installation for the treatment of rough sheets issuing from a rolling mill for flat products

Claim 2

A process for the treatment of rough mother sheets issuing from a rolling mill so as to cut said sheets into daughter sheets of predetermined dimensions, comprising the steps of determining an inscribability of each mother sheet for establishing a layout permitting an optimum utilization of the mother sheet and then passing each mother sheet into means for cutting the mother sheet to length and to width so as to cut out the daughter sheets, the determination of the inscribability comprising the steps of projecting onto the mother sheet a network of crossing luminous lines, selectively displacing each of said luminous lines while maintaining each line parallel to an original position of each line so as to define on the mother sheet a batch of daughter sheets to be obtained, determining length and width coordinates of the luminous lines relative to a reference system pertaining to the mother sheet and cutting the mother sheet in accordance with the determined coordinates.

Claim 3

A process according to claim 1, comprising cutting a transverse end of the mother sheet so as to obtain a length reference of said reference system.

Claim 4

A process according to claim 1, wherein a length reference of said system of coordinates is established by a luminous line which is projected transversely of the mother sheet.

Claim 5

A process according to claim 1, wherein one of the luminous lines extends longitudinally of the mother sheet and constitutes a width reference of said reference system.

Claim 6

A process according to claim 1, wherein the determination of the inscribability comprises the steps of shifting luminous lines which extend longitudinally of the mother sheet so as to determine the inscribability as concerns width of the mother sheet and then shifting luminous lines which extend transversely of the mother sheet so as to determine the inscribability as concerns length of the mother sheet.

Claim 7

A process according to claim 5, comprising, in the course of the determination of the inscribability as concerns width, shifting a first one of the longitudinal luminous lines so as to move it away from unevennesses of a first longitudinal edge of the mother sheet and shifting a second longitudinal luminous line opposed to said first longitudinal line in accordance with a theoretical width of the mother sheet, then checking whether said second longitudinal luminous line is spaced away from unevenness of a second longitudinal edge opposed to said first longitudinal edge of the mother sheet and correcting, if required, the position of said second luminous line so as to space it from a larger edge unevenness, and validating the positions of the longitudinal luminous lines so as to determine the width coordinates.

Claim 8

A process according to claim 6, comprising, in the course of the determination of the inscribability as concerns length of the mother sheet, shifting a foot luminous line which is the luminous line closest to an edge of the mother sheet opposed to a head reference edge of the mother sheet and thereby determining the effective length of said sheet avoiding unevennesses of said edge, positioning other intermediate transverse luminous lines in accordance with lengths of the daughter sheets to be obtained, and validating the positions of all the transverse luminous lines so as to determine the length coordinates.

Claim 9

A process according to claim 7, comprising, in the course of the determination of the length inscribability, shifting at least certain of the transverse luminous lines so as to avoid edge defects present in the mother sheet.

Claim 10

A process according to claim 7, comprising automatically shifting said other transverse luminous lines as a function of calculations for obtaining optimum utilization of the mother sheet effected by a computer, length data of said batch of daughter sheets to be obtained being introduced in said computer.

Claim 11

A process according to claim 9, comprising measuring the temperature of the mother sheet in the course of the laying out and coorecting the positions of the transverse luminous lines in accordance with the results of said measurement.

Claim 12

A process according to claim 9, comprising correcting the positions of the transverse luminous lines as a function of the thickness of the mother sheet.

Claim 13

A process according to claim 9, comprising positioning the transverse luminous lines as a function of dimensions which correspond to upper limits of tolerance ranges to within which the daughter sheets must be cut.

Claim 14

A process according to claim 12, comprising, in the case where the sum of the lengths of the daughter sheets corresponding to said upper limit exceeds said effective establishing length of the mother sheet, lengths for the daughter sheets whose values are within the limits of said tolerances.

Claim 15

A process according to claim 9, comprising selectively positioning the transverse luminous lines for determining a part of said batch of daughter sheets having a length corresponding to a maximum length of a tolerance range and a part of said batch having a length corresponding to a minimum length of said tolerance range, in accordance with the algorithm: ##EQU4## wherein: x=number of daughter sheets of length L M y=number of daughter sheets of length L m E=factor indicating the ratio of the sum of the lengths of daughter sheets to said effective length (L u ) of the mother sheet.

Claim 16

A process according to claim 9, comprising, for effecting the inscribability of a mother sheet bent in the direction of the length, positioning said network of longitudinal luminous lines and transverse luminous lines according to the algorithm: ##EQU5## wherein: .sub. r =recoverable width of the bent mother sheet 1 th =theoretical width of the bent mother sheet f=the rise of the inner arc of the bent mother sheet L=length of the chord of the inner arc L r =recoverable length L reb =recoverable length after cutting the end of the mother sheet.

Claim 17

An installation for the treatment of rough mother sheets issuing from a rolling mill so as to cut said sheets into daughter sheets of predetermined dimensions, the sheets having longitudinal edges and issuing longitudinally from the rolling mill, said installation comprising a layout zone, means for cutting the mother sheet to dimensions, and means for optically determining the inscribability of a given number of daughter sheets in each mother sheet, said means for optically determining the inscribability comprising in said layout zone a group of first light sources each capable of projecting a longitudinal luminous line on the mother sheet to extend longitudinally of the mother sheet, said sources being mounted in such manner as to be laterally movable relative to said longitudinal edges of the mother sheet, a group of second light sources each being movable so as to project a luminous line which is movable over the mother sheet while being maintained parallel to an original position of the luminous line and extends tranversely of the longitudinal edges of the mother sheet, shifting means drivingly connected to said first and second light sources for shifting said light sources, position detecting means drivenly connected to said first and second light sources for detecting the evolution of the position of the light sources relative to said mother sheet and having output means delivering signals corresponding to the detected positions, and information processing means having an output and an input which is connected to said output means of said position detecting means and capable, in response to said signals from said position detecting means, of producing signals at said output which is connected to said input means of said shifting means for positioning the sources in accordance with a given layout.

Claim 18

An installation for the treatment of rough mother sheets issuing from a rolling mill so as to cut said sheets into daughter sheets of predetermined dimensions, the sheets having longitudinal edges and issuing longitudinally from the rolling mill, said installation comprising a layout zone, means for cutting the mother sheet to dimensions, and means for optically determining the inscribability of a given number of daughter sheets in each mother sheet, said means for optically determining the inscribability comprising in said layout zone a group of first light sources each capable of projecting a longitudinal luminous line on the mother sheet to extend longitudinally of the mother sheet, said sources being mounted in such manner as to be laterally movable relative to said longitudinal edges of the mother sheet, a group of second light sources each being movable so as to project a luminous line which is movable over the mother sheet while being maintained parallel to an original position of the luminous line and extends tranversely of the longitudinal edges of the mother sheet, shifting means drivingly connected to said first and second light sources for shifting said light sources, position detecting means drivenly connected to said first and second light sources for detecting the evolution of the position of the light sources relative to said mother sheet and having output means delivering signals corresponding to the detected positions, and information processing means having an output and an input which is connected to said output means of said position detecting means and capable, in response to said signals from said position detecting means, of producing signals at said output which is connected to said input means of said shifting means for positioning the sources in accordance with a given layout.

Claim 19

An installation according to claim 16, wherein said light sources comprise sweeping lasers.

Claim 20

An installation according to claim 16, wherein said light sources comprise lasers having a cylindrical optical element.

Claim 21

An installation according to claim 16, wherein said shifting means comprise a step-by-step driving motor, a lead-screw, a support which is coupled to the considered light source and is movable along said lead-screw upon rotation of the lead-screw, said motor being coupled to the lead-screw, and said detecting means also being coupled to the lead-screw.

Claim 22

An installation according to claim 19, wherein the first light sources are directly mounted on their support and said lead-screw is mounted on a cross-beam which is placed in front of the layout zone and straddles a path in which the mother sheets travel.

Claim 23

An installation according to claim 19, wherein the second light sources are each mounted on a mounting element which is pivotable about a horizontal axis, said mounting element being pivotable about said axis by a mechanism which couples it to said support, the optical axis of said light source being downwardly inclined and all the second light sources being mounted in spaced-apart relation on a system which is placed parallel to the layout zone.

Claim 24

An installation according to claim 16, wherein a device for establishing a head reference is mounted at an end of the layout zone opposed to the first light sources.

Claim 25

An installation according to claim 22, wherein said computer is connected to circuits actuating means for cutting the mother sheet to dimensions for the transmission of position data of the light sources at the end of the laying out.

Claim 26

An installation according to claim 16, comprising a computer connected to receive position signals coming from said detectors and for transmitting command signals to said driving means, said computer being moreover connected to a control desk with an associated display screen.

Claim 27

An installation according to claim 24, wherein said computer is also connected to a circuit for detecting the temperature of the mother sheet for the purpose of compensating for expansion of the mother sheet.

Claim 28

An installation according to claim 24, comprising a circuit for determining the thickness of the mother sheet and connected to said computer for compensating for layout errors due to different thicknesses of the sheets to be treated.

Claim 29

An installation according to claim 24, further comprising a marking unit for affixing to each mother sheet identification indications of the daughter sheets in accordance with signals of position of said light sources coming from said computer.