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Materials and Manufacturing Processes

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Process Analytics, Modeling, and Optimization of an

Industrial Batch Annealing Operation
a a a b b
Satyam S. Sahay , R. Mehta , S. Raghavan , R. Roshan & S. J. Dey
a
Tata Research Development and Design Centre , A Division of Tata Consultancy Services,
Ltd. , Pune, India
b
Cold Rolling Mill, The Tinplate Company of India, Ltd. , Jamshedpur, India
Published online: 16 Dec 2009.

To cite this article: Satyam S. Sahay , R. Mehta , S. Raghavan , R. Roshan & S. J. Dey (2009) Process Analytics, Modeling,
and Optimization of an Industrial Batch Annealing Operation, Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 24:12, 1459-1466, DOI:
10.1080/10426910903179922

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 Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 24: 1459–1466, 2009
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1042-6914 print/1532-2475 online
DOI: 10.1080/10426910903179922

Process Analytics, Modeling, and Optimization

of an Industrial Batch Annealing Operation
Satyam S. Sahay1 , R. Mehta1 , S. Raghavan1 , R. Roshan2 , and S. J. Dey2
1
Tata Research Development and Design Centre, A Division of Tata Consultancy Services, Ltd., Pune, India
2
Cold Rolling Mill, The Tinplate Company of India, Ltd., Jamshedpur, India

Batch annealing operation of a secondary cold-rolling mill has numerous operational challenges, including processing of input coils from varied
sources with high variability, pressure to maintain low inventory level and lack of process model for customized cycle design for individual stacks.
The present work describes a case study of a modern tinplate manufacturing operation, where hot-rolled steel coils are cold rolled to very thin
sheet thickness, followed by batch annealing and tinplating operation. It was envisaged that further stringent quality specifications in mechanical
properties (e.g., hardness variations across the coil) will result in high rework and down-gradation rates. By combining the process analytics
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results with process model (phenomenological and neural-network) simulations, three types of recommendations were made during the present
work: (a) a new classification of coils for stacking, (b) a new chemistry specifications for input coils, and (c) a new model-based process cycles
(temperature and soaking time) for the various coil classes. This integrated approach has resulted in overall rejection and down-gradation rates
for two major products by 44% and 60%, thereby enabling the envisaged tightening of quality specifications. The achieved benefits have been
monitored and sustained for over one year.

Keywords Batch annealing; Cold-rolling; Heat treatment; Modelling; Neural network; Optimization; Process analytics; Product quality; Steel;
Variations.

1. Introduction improvement, this company was proactively seeking

Secondary cold-rolling mill complex face numerous
operational challenges, such as high variability in input
materials procured from varied sources, pressure to maintain
low inventory levels, and lack of higher level of automation
due to smaller capacity. For example, a secondary cold
rolling mill complex, without a captive upstream operation
of hot rolling mill, procures its input hot-rolled coil from
varied sources. This results in coils with wide range of
dimensions (width, coil diameter) and chemistry variations.
Moreover, many of the other important upstream process
parameters, such as finish rolling and coiling temperatures,
are not available to the cold-rolling mill, even though
they have significant bearing on the downstream processes
like batch annealing operations. Also, due to the low
inventory levels, coils need to be classified in very small
number of groups, which can be annealed in a single
batch. In spite of these challenging conditions, in a quality
conscious company, the specifications, such as variations in
mechanical properties, is continuously tightened.
The present work is a case study on quality improvement
in a modern secondary cold-rolling mill, where hot-rolled
coils are pickled, cold-rolled into thin sheets, batch annealed,
and tinplated for its end usage in packaging industry. Due
to their strong commitment towards continuous quality
Received April 25, 2009; Accepted July 13, 2009
Address correspondence to Satyam S. Sahay, Tata Research
Development and Design Centre, A Division of Tata Consultancy
Services, Ltd., 54, Hadapsar Industrial Estate, Pune 411 013, India;
E-mail: satyamsahay@yahoo.com
1459
opportunity to further tighten the quality specification,
especially the hardness variation within a coil. It was
envisaged that the proposed tightening of hardness variation
specifications would significantly increase the rejection
and down-gradation rate. In order to enable this proactive
quality improvement commitment, the present work was
undertaken.
In the batch annealing process, 4–5 cylindrical steel coils
(∼20–30 tonnes each) are stacked on a furnace base, which
is subsequently covered by a air-tight cylindrical cover and a
cylindrical furnace. The protective cover is externally heated
by two rows of burners resulting in radiative and convective
modes of heat transfer, which heats the circulating hydrogen
gas. The outer and inner surfaces of the coils get heated
by convection from the circulating hydrogen gas and by
radiation between the cover and the coil. The inner portions
of the coils get heated by conduction. During the cooling
cycle, the furnace hood is replaced with a cooling hood,
and the circulating gas is cooled through bypass cooling.
A schematic diagram of the batch annealing furnace is
shown in Fig. 1.
In an earlier optimization study for the batch annealing
operation of another integrated steel plant, an integrated
batch annealing furnace model, with an ability to
predict spatial and temporal evolution of temperature,
microstructure, and final mechanical properties of the coils
undergoing batch annealing was developed by this research
group [1–3]. The major advantage of this integrated model
lies in its capability of designing the batch annealing cycles
directly on the basis of requirements of microstructure and
mechanical property specifications, rather than indirectly
estimating them using temperature differentials between the
 1460 S. S. SAHAY ET AL.

Table 1.—Quality specification criterion for various product classes.

Product class Hardness proposed Variations max–min Min 2 points @

A 56–59 2 56
B 60–64 2 60

for the various coil classes. Implementations of these

Figure 1.—Schematic diagram of batch annealing furnace.
recommendations have resulted in significant reduction
in the rework and down-gradation rates. The improved
performance has been sustained for over 12 months.
The present article details the solution methodology and
implementation results for improving the quality of the
batch annealing operation.

hot and cold spots. This also helps in reducing the coil- 2. Process analysis
to-coil property variations in the plant. The advantage of Three months of production and quality data were taken
this integrated model has been demonstrated by achieving from the operation and analyzed. The proposed quality
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9% productivity enhancement in a modern batch annealing

operation, when integrated model was used instead of
prevalent thermal model [2]. However, it must be noted
that the integrated model requires annealing kinetics data
(recrystallization, grain growth) as well as microstructure
property correlations, which are extremely sensitive to
chemistry as well as upstream parameters (e.g., finish
rolling and coiling temperature at hot-rolling mill and %cold
reduction). In an integrated steel operation it is feasible to
carryout such kinetics experiments, as they produce limited
number of grades and have tight control on the upstream
operations, such as hot rolling, coiling, and cold rolling. On
the contrary, in the secondary re-rolling mills considered in
the present work, hot rolled coils are procured from large
number sources with varied upstream conditions, which are
often unknown. Due to these uncertainties, it becomes an
infeasible proposition to perform the kinetic experiments
and develop such an integrated model. Therefore, in the
present work, thermal model (which is less sensitive to
chemistry and upstream conditions) was used in conjunction
to a neural-network model based on the process and quality
data. The phenomenological thermal model, based on the
heat transfer during the coil annealing, has the capability to
predict spatial and temporal temperature evolution within
the coil. In the neural network model, the coil chemistry,
dimensions, and process cycles were correlated to the
mechanical property.
By combining the process analytics results with process
model simulations, three types of recommendations were
made: (a) new classification of coils for stacking, (b) new
chemistry specifications for input coils, and (c) new model- Figure 2.—Temperature compliance and the corresponding coil quality for
based process cycles (temperature and soaking time) various thicknesses for product class “A” (September–November 2005 Data).

Table 2.—Various coil dimension and compositional parameters obtained for the three categories of products.

Product class Quality No. of coils Width (mm) Thickness (mm) OD (mm) Weight (tonne) %Cold redn %Ceq

A Softer 225 864 ± 64 0
272 ± 0
034 1777
6 ± 95
2 15
18 ± 2
04 88
2 ± 1
08 0
0855 ± 0
0205
A Good 593 881 ± 60 0
265 ± 0
029 1785 ± 75
3 15
58 ± 1
65 88
2 ± 0
99 0
0958 ± 0
0263
A Harder 182 886 ± 61 0
253 ± 0
032 1783 ± 68 15
62 ± 1
56 88
4 ± 0
95 0
1126 ± 0
0339
B Softer 70 899 ± 37 0
265 ± 0
023 1791 ± 83 16
05 ± 1
54 87
37 ± 0
59 0
1448 ± 0
0172
B Good 166 891
8 ± 33 0
255 ± 0
026 1813 ± 48 16
31 ± 1
73 87
58 ± 0
63 0
1506 ± 0
0126
B Harder 1 860 0.28 1833 16.1 87.27 0.1533
 PROCESS ANALYTICS, MODELING, AND OPTIMIZATION
acceptance criteria are tabulated in Table 1. There are three
conditions, namely, hardness range, acceptable variation
within a coil and the minimum hardness values of two
readings out of three. It must be noted that all three
criterion must be simultaneously met for a product to be of
acceptable quality, which makes it very stringent. The two
product classes, referred to as “A” and “B” in this article,
comprise more than 90% of the production in this company.
Detailed process analysis was carried out to benchmark the
present operating conditions in terms of strike rates (% of
accepted coils in first attempt, a measure of rework, and
down-gradation rate) and productivity using three months
of production data.
Based on the above acceptance criterion, the qualities of
processed coils were categorized in four classes: (a) coils
which were softer than the required hardness range,
(b) coils which were harder than the required hardness
range, (c) coils which failed due to variability, and (d) coils
which were of acceptable quality. Mean and standard
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deviations of coil dimensions and process parameters of the
classified coils are presented in Table 2. The net effect of
carbon and manganese content were combined as equivalent
carbon content given as
%Manganese
%C-equivalent = %Carbon +
(1)
6
Figure 3.—Temperature compliance and the corresponding coil quality for
various thicknesses in for product class “B” (September–November 2005
Data).
1461
The performances of the processed coils for various
thickness ranges are presented in Figs. 2 and 3 for product
classes “A” and “B,” respectively. In the same figure,
the temperature compliance (deviation from designated
set-points) is also presented. It is interesting to note that,
for product class “B,” most of the failures are of softer
coils [Fig. 3(a)], which can be partly explained by higher
than temperature compliance [Fig. 3(b)] in the positive
direction. However, in the product class “A,” even though
the temperature compliance is in negative direction, the
failure type is mixed (harder as well as softer) in nature.
In both these cases, failure due to variability was found to
be insignificant.
As can be seen from Table 2, the %C-equivalent plays
major role for product class “A” but does not affect product
class “B” coils, within the range considered in this work.
The effect of equivalent carbon content on the strike rate
and the rejection type for product class “A” is presented
in Fig. 4. It is evident from Fig. 4(a) that there is an
optimal equivalent carbon content which results in very
high strike rates (above 80%). Figure 4(b) shows that with
increase in equivalent carbon content, the %softer rejection
decreases and the %harder rejection increases. Around the
optimum location of 0.12 %C-equivalent, the %softer and
%harder rejections are low resulting in highest strike rate.
The increase in hardness with increased equivalent carbon
can be attributed to the solute strengthening effect.
Figure 4.—Strike rate (a) and rejection type (b) for class “A” for the period
of April–June 2006 as a function of equivalent carbon content.
 1462 S. S. SAHAY ET AL.

3. Neural-network model strengthening. The effect of standard deviation is also shown

Phenomenological models such as integrated batch
annealing simulator are unable to correlate upstream process
parameters such as coil chemistry, %cold rolled etc., without
carrying out a large number of kinetic experiments on all
the conditions. Neural-networks provide an efficient way of
correlating such process data to the product quality [4–9].
In the present work, a feed forward neural network (NN)
model based on the three months of data for product classes
“A” and “B” was developed to correlate process variables
with the coil hardness. The input vectors for the model
consisted of eight elements; namely, width, thickness, outer
diameter, heating cycle time, soaking temperature, %C,
%Mn, and product class. The process data set of 1057 coils
were randomized and divided into two sets of 740 coils
for training the net and 317 coils for testing the net. The
structure of best network developed using back propagation
(BP) algorithm [10, 11] comprised one input layer with
eight input neurons, two hidden layers with eight and seven
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in Fig. 5. However, it must be noted that for product
class “B,” there is very small difference in the hardness
values between softer and good coil categories, i.e., effect of
chemistry is not significant. This is also reflected in Table 2.
Analysis of process data as well as neural network results
show that there is an optimum carbon equivalent to achieve
acceptable quality of class “A” for the current process
conditions and plant practice. Carbon and manganese
content below this optimum regime results in softer coils,
whereas exceeding this optimum regime results in harder
coils. This also shows the need for a tighter control of
carbon and manganese content in the product class “A”
coils. Alternately, classification of the coils can be done on
the basis of carbon equivalent, so that different set-points
can be designed for different types of coils.
4. Thermal model

An integrated batch annealing model has been

hidden neurons, respectively, and an output layer with a developed [1–3], where based on the process inputs,
single output neuron. Prediction results of the trained NN e.g., coil dimensions and temperature set-points, the
model were acceptable for both training data and test data spatial distribution and temporal evolution of temperature,
sets. For the training data set 80% predictions were within microstructure, and the mechanical properties of the coils
3% error range and for test data set, which was not used can be predicted. The details of thermal model have been
during artificial neural network (ANN) development, 75% presented earlier [1–3]. In the present work, only the thermal
predictions were within 3% error range. model has been used to predict the transient temperature
Using the developed NN, hardness predictions were made profiles at different locations in the coil, where the thermal
with mean values of width, thickness, outer diameter, time, profiles of coils are obtained by solving the following energy
and gas temperature for the mean ± standard deviation of equation in cylindrical coordinates [3]
carbon and manganese contents for softer, good, and harder
coils of product classes “A” and “B.” As shown in Fig. 5,


Tm  Tm 1  Tm
for the product class “A,” these three categories indeed m C m = k + rkr  (2)
predicts hardness values in ascending order, with softer  z z z r r r
group containing lowest carbon and manganese results in
lowest hardness; harder group with highest carbon and where Tm is the temperature, m is the density, and Cm
manganese content predicts highest hardness and good coils and kz are temperature-dependent specific heat and thermal
result in-between these two regimes. These results suggest conductivity of the coil. The radial conductivity kr  of the
that there are optimum carbon and manganese contents coil depends on the sheet thickness and air gap between
which provide acceptable quality of annealed coils for sheets [2, 3]. The boundary conditions used for the above
product class “A.” The carbon and manganese content equation were [3]
below and above this optimum level result in softer or
harder coils, respectively. Increase in hardness with increase for  ≤ 0  Tm r z = Tamb (3.a)
in carbon and manganese content is expected due to solute
for  > 0 

Tm
kr = ho Tm − Tgo  + m F
Tm4 − Tc4 
r
D
at r = o (3.b)
2

Tm D
−kr = hi Tm − Tgi  at r = i (3.c)
r 2
Tm
kz = ht/b Tm − Tt/b  at z = zmax /0 (3.d)
z
Figure 5.—Hardness values as predicted by the NN with carbon and where ‘ ’ and ‘’ are emissivity and absorptivity, ‘F ’ is
manganese content from the three categories for class “A” and class “B” coils. the shape factor, Tc is the cover temperature, Tgi and Tgo
 PROCESS ANALYTICS, MODELING, AND OPTIMIZATION 1463

are the hydrogen gas temperature in the inner core and

outer annuli between the coil and cover, and
is the
Stefan–Boltzmann constant. Equation (3.a) initializes the
coil temperature to the ambient Tamb , Eq. (3.b) considers
the convection with hydrogen gas and radiation with the
cover hood at the outer surface of the coil, while Eqs. (3.c),
(3.d) consider the convection at the inner core of the coil.
Heat transfer coefficients at the coil outer ho  and inner
hi  surfaces were obtained from the correlation for the
flow through annuli and cylindrical tube, while the heat
transfer coefficient for the flow through convector plates
ht/b  was obtained from the correlation for flow through
converging rectangular ducts [3]. In addition to the coil,
other components in the furnace are also considered.
The coils were divided into grids in the radial and axial
directions (typically 31 × 31 size grids were used for the
coils, after doing grid independence analysis). Grids for the Figure 7.—Required soaking time (contour labels in hrs) to achieve a T of
gases, furnace wall, and cover hood in the axial direction 20 C.
were replicated from the axial grids of the stacked coils.
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The two-dimensional equation for the coils is implicitly

solved using control volume formulation by the line-by-line Typical model predictions given in Fig. 6 show that the
method, which is a combination of the Tridiagonal Matrix simulated temperature profiles of the coils agree reasonably
Algorithm (TDMA) and the Gauss–Seidel method [3]. well with the experimental data. It must be noted that
This ODE for the furnace cover or gases is solved using the deviations between experimental result and model
the fourth order Runge–Kutta technique. The governing prediction in the cooling portion will not impact the
equations for all the components were solved in sequence microstructure and mechanical properties.
and iterated until a global convergence of temperatures was After validating the thermal model with plant data, the
achieved. The solution to the above equation provides the tuned model was used to examine the effects of various
complete transient temperature history during heating and coil parameters on cycle time and temperature. Model
cooling cycles, at different locations of the coil. A typical
temperature profile of the control thermocouple, hot spot
(near surface), and cold spot (lowest temperature in the core
location) is shown in Fig. 6.
In the present work, the thermal model was first
customized to the furnace dimensions of current operation.
Subsequently, to capture the prevalent operating condition,
the model parameters such as heat transfer coefficient, were
tuned to predict measured temperature profiles. The required
experimental data for this exercise was obtained by
embedding thermocouples in the coils. Model prediction
was validated with all the three available experimental
data-sets by using a single set of model-tuning parameters.

Figure 8.—(a) Effect of coil diameter on cycle time, model prediction

vs. process data and (b) Opportunity for cycle time reduction due to this
Figure 6.—Thermal model validation with measured experimental data. mismatch.
 1464 S. S. SAHAY ET AL.

simulations were carried out to examine the effect of coil Table 3.—Steps taken to improve the strike rate of product class “A.”
width and outer diameter on cycle time and temperature
differential T  between the hot and cold spots. In these Benchmarking
model simulations, four identical size coils (sheet thickness - Strike rate 48%
- Failure mixed type: 35% harder, 19% softer
0.28 mm) were taken, T was kept constant at 20 C, and - Poor compliance
required cycle time to achieve this T were determined for
different coil width and outer diameters. As is evident from
Fig. 7, the required soaking time increases with increase
in coil width and outer diameter (OD) for achieving a
STAGE I
Classification based on coil diameter
- Process analysis showed effects
- Increased number of classes a concern
constant T of 20 C. This is expected as the axial and radial - No trials taken for these cycles
diffusion distances increase with increase in coil width and
outer diameter, respectively. This demonstrates that in order Thickness OD < 1725 ( C) OD ≥ 1725 ( C)
to obtain the same T for all the coil dimensions, soaking 0.18–0.20 560 20 580 20
time should be varied with coil outer diameter and width, 0.21–0.22 560 20 580 20
which was not in the current practice. 0.23–0.25 555 20 570 20
In Fig. 8(a), the cycle times as predicted from model 0.25–0.28 550 20 560 20
simulations have been compared with process data. As is STAGE II
evident from this figure, the model simulations show that the Classification based on chemistry and source
cycle time should increase with increase in coil diameter, - Neural-network and process analysis
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whereas the current process data does not incorporate this - Increased number of classes a concern
effect. This discrepancy between model prediction and - Strike rate improved to 65% for %Ceq < 0
1%
process data provides an opportunity to reduce the cycle Dec. 2006 data
time in the present operation. This opportunity of cycle time
%Ceq # Coils %Strike %Hard %Soft
reduction for higher coil diameter can be translated in the
plant by calculating the required T as a function of outer <0
1% 235 65 11 23
diameter [Fig. 8(b)]. >0
1% 16 38 62 0

Source Equivalent carbon % T ( C)

5. Recommendations and plant implementation
Tata steel <0
1 23
Figure 2 shows that the failure type for product class Tata steel 0.1–0.15 20
“A” is mixed (35% harder and 19% softer). Classification Tata steel >0
15 15
of product class “A” on the basis of thickness range Other 0.06-0.1 18
revealed that most of the failures due to harder coils were Other 0.1–0.15 15
in the 0.18–0.2 thickness range. This can be attributed to STAGE III
the skewed temperature compliance towards lower soak Classification based on chemistry & thickness
temperatures for the 0.18–0.2 thickness range as shown - Neural-network and process analysis
in Fig. 2(b). For all other thickness ranges temperature - Coils with <0
1%C are preferred
compliance was greater than 80% yet most of the failure - Trials successful, and acceptable
types were softer, suggesting that the process cycles also Jan. 2007 data
need modification for the product class “A.” Subsequently,
as illustrated in Table 3, cycle modification was carried out %Ceq # Coils %Strike %Hard %Soft
in a number of stages where effect of cycle compliance <0
1% 288 65 23 12
and new classification methods (OD, chemistry, sources) >0
1% 21 38 52 10
were examined. For the available coil width ranges for
Thickness Soak temp T
this product, classification based on coil width did not
exhibit any significant effect. The plant trials of these 0.18–0.20 580 20
implementations resulted in the strike rate improvement. 0.21–0.22 580 20
As can be seen from Fig. 3, the failure types for product 0.23–0.25 570 20
0.26–0.28 565 22
class “B” in the benchmarking data were primarily of >0
28 570 12 hrs soak
softer type. In order to separate the compliance and cycle
design effects, coils with 100% set-point compliance were
considered. Analysis of 225 coils with 100% compliance
from benchmarking data exhibited a low strike rate of 38%
with all the failure types as softer coils. Figure 3 shows model simulations, it was suggested that the temperature
thickness wise strike rates and temperature compliance, differential be increased from 20 to 25 C, which will prevent
where poor strike rates with softer failure is evident for over annealing of the coil. Plant trials showed marked
all the three thickness ranges. It can be seen from Fig. 3 improvement in strike rate, but there were stray cases of
that for thickness ranges 0.23–0.25 and 0.26–0.28, failure hard coils, which was a major concern. Finally, the soaking
types are predominantly softer, even though temperature temperature was set at 565 C with T of 23 C for all the
compliance is good. Therefore cycles for product class size ranges, which improved the strike rate to 81%. The
“B” need to be modified. Based on the batch annealing various steps taken to improve the strike rate of product
 PROCESS ANALYTICS, MODELING, AND OPTIMIZATION 1465

Table 4.—Steps taken to improve the strike rate of product class “B.”

Stage/change Strike rate Observation/comments

Benchmark 38% Is low strike rate due to compliance or set-points or classification?

Compliance 65% Improved compliance to 95% (for Oct–Nov 2006) improved the strike rate.
Set-point change needed for further improvement
Chemistry No effect Neural network model showed no chemistry effect
Classification No effect Process analysis showed no effect of width or OD effect
T = 25 C 75% Mathematical model used to design cycles with T of 25 C
Strike rate improved, stray cases of very hard coils observed
0.18–0.25 25 C High Increased classes reduces operator’s ease
0.26–0.28 22 C Potential concern about stray cases of hard coils at T of 25 C
565 C T : 23 C 81%
Compliance of recommendations 98%
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Figure 9.—Improvement in strike rate for class “A” and class “B” product
coils as compared to benchmark data.
class “B” temper are given in Table 4. For the available
coil width and diameter ranges for this product, they did
not exhibit any significant effect.
Based on the process analysis and mathematical model,
set-points were designed and trials were taken on the
modified cycles. As illustrated in Fig. 9, this has resulted
in 63 and 81% strike rates (15 and 43% improvement over
benchmarking) of product class “A” and “B” during the
three months (Jan. 2007) of plant implementation. Further
improvement in overall strike-rate for product class “A”
was achieved by ensuring the set-point compliance, and
avoiding coils with %C equivalent content higher than 0.1%.
Although the focus of this project was on improving the
strike rate, implementations of various recommendations
have also resulted in marginal improvement (3.3%) in the
productivity. During the last year, all the recommendations
(e.g., tightening of input materials and improved compliance
to the new set-points) have been implemented, which has
resulted in further increase in strike rates (April 2008
in Fig. 9) to 92% and 98% strike rates (44% and 60%
improvement over benchmarking) of product class “A” and
“B,” respectively.
6. Discussions
Modern process industries are generally equipped with
sophisticated sensors and production data management
systems, which archive a large number of data-fields and
the massive sizes of these databases. The present work
Jan. 2007: Very high strike rate, no issue of hard coils, acceptable
April 2008: Operating at very high efficiency and quality levels
illustrates that the archived production data could be a
valuable resource for process optimization. It has been
shown that, by identifying important process variables and
examining their correlation with the performance parameter,
it can lead to significant enhancement in process efficiency.
This approach, which significantly depends on the domain
understanding, helps in reducing the multifield databases to
a few important fields, thereby, rendering them amenable
to analysis. This is in sharp contrast to the traditional data-
mining approach, where correlations between process and
performance parameters are drawn primarily from large
process databases. It has also been shown that the data-
based models, such as NN, can be used to correlate the
input and process parameters with the product quality. The
process analysis and data-based models can be used in
conjunction with the phenomenological models to optimize
the process parameters. The extensive experiments required
for phenomenological models (e.g., kinetic parameters) can
be significantly reduced through this approach of coupling
data-based models with phenomenological model. This
integrated approach reduces the risk of failure during plant
trials and helps in arriving at solutions which could be
implemented in the industrial operations. It must be noted
that the productivity enhancements achieved in the present
work can be further increased by incorporating other recent
efforts on increasing the circulation rate and hydrogen gas
content [12, 13] or replacing the convector plates with
C-inserts [14].
7. Conclusions
In the present work the production and quality data from
a batch annealing operation has been used for process
analytics and building NN models. These approaches have
been used in conjunction with phenomenological thermal
model to reduce the overall rejection and down-gradation
rates during batch annealing operation by 44% and 60% for
the two product classes considered in the present work. It
has been shown that analysis of failure types resulted in two
distinctly different solution approaches for the two product
classes considered in the present work. The benefits derived
through this work have been sustained for over one year.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the management of
The Tinplate Company of India Limited (TCIL) and Tata
 1466
Research Development and Design Centre for supporting
and approving this work. The authors would also like to
thank Mr. Anil Kumar and Mr. Ashish Kumar from TCIL
for their immense support during the project execution.
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