Design and control of multispan tension simulator

In this paper, the design and control aspects of a multispan tension simula tor are presented. The simulator consists of four driven rolls, including u nwinder, winder, and two bridle rolls. Some relationships between design pa rameters and characteristics of the simulator are explained as a design gui de of a multispan system. A new control algorithm of continuous load balanc e control is proposed for the control of speed and tension in the multispan system. The strip tension is controlled by the continuous balancing of the load torque of rolls without tension sensor. The simulation and experiment al results reveal conspicuous improvement of tension control performance by the proposed algorithm.