Intelligent rolls change scheduling systems for rod wire rolling

Rolls change scheduling is a very complex operation affected by several constraints: dimensions, geometries, product quality or rod mill configuration among others. The candidate rolls to be mounted for one stand may be also conditioned by those proposed in former stands, turning this operation in an iterative high dimension search problem. This paper describes an intelligent system for the automation of this process. The method relies on a branch and bound strategy implemented over the set of rules extracted from the expert knowledge from the facility technicians. Several heuristics have been included allowing the reduction of the search space. The proposed method performs the calculations in just few seconds. A high-flexibility is provided for the definition of conditions which rolls must meet to be mounted in each stand. This means a rise in work efficiency.