An Experimental Investigation of Steel Surface Topography Transfer by Cold Rolling

Automobile and household appliance panels require steel strips with extremely high-quality surfaces. Therefore, an in-depth study of the surface topography transfer of the steel strip during the rolling process is of considerable significance for improving product quality. In this study, the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm is used to realize the large-field stitching and the correspondence measurement of the surface topography of the roll and strip. The surface topography transfer mechanism and microconvex change law during cold rolling are revealed. Further analysis is conducted regarding the effects of different reduction rates and the initial surface topography of the roll on the formation of strip surface topography. Experimental results reveal that the furrow phenomenon occurs during the rolling process owing to the backward slip effect but is eliminated by the elastoplastic deformation of the matrix and the forward slip action. No furrow occurred along the width direction of the strip. With an increase in the rolling reduction rate, the transfer rate increases, and the strip surface topography is closer to the roll surface topography. Under the same rolling roughness condition and a small reduction rate (5%), the transfer degree increases remarkably with a rise in the reduction rate and increases slowly as the reduction rate continues to grow (from 7 to 10%). This study serves as a theoretical basis for the subsequent improvement of the surface quality of cold rolled strips.