Background

Abstract

Competition within the steel industry has increased during the last decade. One consequence is that the product quality has become very important when marketing steel products. Since the steel industry is an energy demanding industry and the costs of energy have increased, it is necessary to reduce the consumption of energy. Furthermore, there is an increased demand for new properties of iron and new dimensions. As a consequence, the number of reference adjustments has increased when controlling an industrial process. To fulfil these requirements, novel control methods and new processes have become very important to produce products with a competitive quality and price.