Diameter Sizing of Rolls in

Bridles that Utilize Powder

Clutches
BRIAN T. BOULTER
ROBERT F. LOCKHART
Diameter Sizing of Rolls in Bridles that Utilize Powder Clutches
Abstract - The use of powder clutches for regulation of
torque in entry and exit bridles of tension levelers must
take into consideration the constraints imposed by the
slip requirements of the powder clutch. This paper
provides guidelines for roll diameter sizing as a function
of the maximum linear line speed and worst case
application tension profiles such that the powder clutch
always operates in a reasonable slip operating range.
Key Words: Bridles, Powder-Clutches, Tension
Levelers, Strip Tension.
1. INTRODUCTION
Scratching of the strip observed during commissioning of
the tension leveler of an OEM tension leveling line was
attributed to slippage in the entry and exit bridles of the
tension leveler. Based on a careful analysis of the
tension profiles, bridle roll static and dynamic friction
coefficients, and motor power requirements of the entry
and exit bridles of the tension leveler nothing was found
to explain the observed bridle slippage. It became
apparent that an additional unknown was responsible.
To facilitate a better understanding of the problem a brief
description of a powder clutch and the power
transmission system of the OEM tension leveler is
presented.
A powder clutch is a passive device, it is incapable of
supplying power to a system. Briefly, it is a type of
electromagnetic disk clutch in which the space between
the clutch members is filled with dry, finely divided
magnetic particles; application of a magnetic field
coalesces these particles, creating friction forces
between the clutch members. Shaft torque can be
regulated by controlling the strength of the magnetic
field, and hence the friction between the clutch
members. Powder clutches are designed to operate with
a fairly linear relationship between torque and field
current within a given slip range (Fig. 1). The direction of
power flow through the clutch is always from the shaft
that is rotating faster to the shaft that is rotating slower.
Fig. 2. is a schematic representation of the power
transmission system in the tension leveler. Beginning
with the exit bridle, a drive motor provides power to the
system through a 1:1 transmission. The output shafts of
the exit bridle transmission are all rotating at the same
speed. All four drive shafts feed power to the rolls
through 96/16 gears. Power is supplied to the gear for
roll #5 directly from the 1:1 transmission. For rolls #6, #7
and #8 power is supplied through individual powder
clutches. Strip tension in each section of the exit bridle
decreases between higher roll numbers, with a minimum
at the exit of the exit bridle. The bridle is said to be
motoring, therefore power must be supplied to the
process from the drive motor as indicated by the
direction of the arrows representing the drive shafts. The
amount of torque on the individual shafts determines the
drop in strip tension across each roll and is controlled
with the powder clutch field current.
Another motor is connected to a differential gear box.
The differential gearbox is also connected to the 1:1
drive transmission to provide a path for power
transmission from the entry bridle to the exit bridle. The
differential configuration enables the average rotating
speed of the entry bridle to be slightly less than the exit
bridle thereby creating the necessary elongation for
tension leveling. The output shafts of the entry bridle
differential transmission are, like the shafts on the exit
bridle, all rotating at the same speed. Similarly all four
drive shafts feed power to the rolls through 96/16 gears.
Power is supplied to the gear for roll #4 directly from the
differential transmission. For rolls #1, #2 and #3 power is
supplied through individual powder clutches. The
tensions in each section of the entry bridle increase
between higher roll numbers, with a maximum at the exit
of the entry bridle. The bridle is said to be regenerating,
therefore power must be absorbed from the process to
the drive motor as indicated by the direction of the
Diameter Sizing of Rolls in Bridles that Utilize Powder Clutches
arrows representing the drive shafts. Analogous to the
exit bridle, the amount of torque on the individual shafts
determines the tension increase across each roll and is
controlled with the powder clutch field current.
In the entry bridle, roll #4 is not connected to a powder
clutch therefore the [rpm] of the shafts on the differential
transmission side of the powder clutches for rolls #1, #2
and #3 will rotate at the same speed as the drive shaft
for roll #4. To satisfy the requirement that the process
side powder clutch shafts rotate faster than the
transmission side shafts (to absorb power from the
process to the transmission) the roll diameters for rolls
#1, #2 and #3 must be less than #4. A similar analogy
can be drawn for the exit bridle showing that rolls #6, #7
and #8 must have larger diameters than roll #5.
The roll diameters on the commissioned leveler bridles
were sized by the OEM such that the powder clutches
operated with a very small slip (less than 0.1 [rpm]). This
was done without consideration of the differential in
adjacent roll surface speeds that is required to maintain
a given strip tension (see [1], [2], [3]). An analysis of the
entry bridle that included this phenomena revealed that
at a given line speed the reduction in roll diameters of
rolls #1, #2, #3 was not sufficient enough to guarantee
that the process side powder clutch shafts would rotate
faster than the transmission side shafts. Bridle behavior
would be completely unpredictable at or above this
speed.
Section 2 contains a derivation of a roll diameter sizing
equation based on a commonly used strip tension
dynamic equation. Section 3 closes with some
conclusions.
2. ANALYSIS
2.1 NOMENCLATURE
For the analysis the nomenclature is associated with the
entry bridle model shown in Fig. 3
J
i
The ith roll inertia [kg m^2]
V
i
The ith roll surface velocity [m/min]
w
i
The i'th roll reflected rotational velocity [rpm]
R
i
The ith roll radius [m]
D
i
The ith roll diameter [m]
GR
i
The ith roll gear ratio
L
i
The ith tension zone length [m] (includes 1/2
wrap length)
T
i
The ith tension zone tension [kgf]
t
i
The ith roll reflected shaft torque [kgf m]
E Modulus of elasticity [kgf/mm^2]
A Cross sectional area [mm^2]
AMIN Minimum strip cross sectional area
[mm^2]
s The Laplace operator
LS Maximum line speed [m/min]
S
i
Slip at the ith roll powder clutch [rpm]
S
i

(MAX)
Maximum powder clutch slip at the
i'th roll [rpm]
T
i(MAX)
Maximum tension drop across the
i'th roll [kgf m]
2.2 STRIP TENSION VS SPEED DIFFERENTIAL
EQUATION:
The strip tension equation (1) is a commonly used
representation ([1], [2], [3]) of the dynamics associated
with the conveyance of strip through tension zones with
the use of bridles. It is based on the concept of
conservation of mass.
Assuming zero initial conditions, taking the Laplace
transform of (1) and solving for T
i
yields:
For metals applications it is reasonable to assume the Vi
is approximately equal to Vi-1 [4], (2) can now be
expressed as:
Solving (2) for the condition where T
i-1
, V
i
and V
i-1
are
constant and assuming no disturbances, we can obtain
an approximation of the speed differential required to
maintain a specific tension (5):
Diameter Sizing of Rolls in Bridles that Utilize Powder Clutches
Therefore:
Solving for V
i-1
we obtain:
Non-linear contributions such as strip viscous and
square-law material damping have not been included in
(6). Inclusion of these material properties would result in
a speed differential other than that calculated with (6).
With this in mind the analysis that follows should be
viewed as ideal. Some margin to accommodate these
exclusions should be left in the final design guidelines.
2.3 DESIGN RULES FOR ROLL DIAMETER
CALCULATIONS IN POWDER CLUTCH BRIDLE
APPLICATIONS
From (6) it is clear that the faster the line speed of a
given application the greater the speed difference
between two driven rolls must be to maintain a given
tension differential (T
i
). In the OEM bridle design the
values of GR
i
are equal to 96/19 on all the powder clutch
torque controlled rolls, therefore T
i
for a range of line
speeds can only be achieved by either changing the
speed of rotation of the driven roll and/or by change in
the diameter of the roll.
As described in the introduction, for the entry bridle to
regenerate power the powder clutch requires that the
load side shaft be rotating faster than the motor side
shaft. To accomplish this the OEM increased the
diameter of the driven rolls as the strip passes through
the bridle (i.e. D
1
< D
2
< D
3
< D
4
in Fig. 3). If we ignore
the effect of stretch in the strip (Eq. 6) then with these
diameters
1
>
2
>
3
>
4
and the powder clutch slip
should theoretically be in the correct direction. However
when the effect of strip stretch (5) is considered there
now exists the possibility that the additional velocity
differential term may result in a condition where
1
<
2
<
3
<
4
to maintain tension in the strip. This is a
physically unrealizable operating condition for the
powder clutch. The entry bridle can no longer regenerate
power through the powder clutches and the tension in
the strip will not follow the desired tension profile. The
bridle behavior is no longer predictable. A similar
analogy exists for the exit bridle.
The purpose of the following analysis is to identify
maximum bridle roll diameters such
1
>
2
>
3
>
4
for all strip cross sectional areas, all line speeds, and all
bridle tension profiles. An analysis for the entry bridle roll
diameter calculations is presented, the exit bridle roll
diameters are calculated with a similar procedure. The
following constraints need to be identified for the
analysis:
1. Identify the maximum slip desired in the powder
clutch: (S
(MAX)
)
2. Identify the maximum possible tension drop
requirement of the driven rolls. (T
i(MAX)
)
3. Identify the minimum strip cross sectional area.
(A
MIN
)
Let the rotational speed of the shaft on the motor side of
the 96/16 gear-box for the speed regulated driven roll is
given as:
Then the entry bridle analysis begins at the speed
regulated roll (Roll #4) and moves out toward the entry
bridle entry roll (Roll #1). The equations governing the
rotational speeds of the these rolls are obtained by
combining (6) and (7):
To meet the minimum slip requirement the analysis
should be performed for the worst case scenario. That is
for a minimum cross sectional area, maximum T
i
's and
the desired S
(MAX)
. This may be accomplished by solving
(8a,b,c) for the roll radius and these operating
conditions. That is:
Diameter Sizing of Rolls in Bridles that Utilize Powder Clutches
The worst case analysis above has a built in safety
margin based on the use of a minimum cross sectional
area with an unrealistic tension differential through the
bridle. However this approach provides for
accommodation of the unmodeled nonlinearities
described in section 2.2 above and leads to a more
robust design. A more general form of (8a,b,c) for n rolls
(where the n'th roll is speed regulated and the other rolls
are driven through powder clutches) can be expressed
as:
Similar derivations can be made for the exit bridle where,
in terms of flow, the first roll in the bridle is speed
regulated:
Table 1 contains a calculated set of diameters based on
a set of parameters for the entry bridle at the OEM's
user site. The author used a S
i(MAX)
of 3 [rpm]. This value
was chosen based on the advice of several powder
clutch vendors who recommend operating the powder
clutch with as much slip as an application will allow. This
is to avoid erratic torque behavior that occurs when
operating with slips that approach zero. This erratic
behavior is attributed to a vacillation of the friction
coefficient between the powder in the clutch and the
rotating surfaces. With extremely low slip values the
friction coefficient randomly varies from a static value
(when the input and output speeds lock together) to a
dynamic value (when there is slight slip in the powder
clutch). However it should be pointed out that the
amount of maximum slip in the powder clutch must also
be chosen based on a careful analysis of the thermal
characteristics of the powder clutch and the desired
application torque for the clutch. This is to avoid
overheating during normal operation.
T
i(MAX)
was calculated using 2100 [kg] entry tension
maximum, a coefficient of friction for the rolls equal to
0.15 and a wrap angle of 210 [deg] on each roll as
follows:
For the exit bridle:
T
i(MAX)
was calculated using 30000 [kg] entry tension
maximum, a coefficient of friction for the rolls equal to
Diameter Sizing of Rolls in Bridles that Utilize Powder Clutches
0.15 and a wrap angle of 210 [deg] on each roll as
follows:
3. CONCLUSION
When sizing the roll diameters in applications with
powder clutches consideration must be made to provide
a reasonable minimum slip in the powder clutch. In
addition the velocity differential attributable to stretch in
moving strip must also be accommodated.
References
1. Carter, W. C., "Reducing Transient Strains in Elastic
Processes, Control Engineering Mar. 1965. Pp. 84-
87.
2. Boulter, B. T., "A Novel Approach for On-Line Self-
Tuning Web Tension Regulation ", Proceedings of
the 4th IEEE International Conference on Control
Applications, Pp. 91- 98, September 1995.
3. Fox, S. J., Lilley, D. G., "Computer Simulation Of
Web Dynamics ", Proceedings of the 1st IWHC
International Web Handling Conference Tab 20.
Oklahoma State University, March 1991.
4. [4] Hamby, R. C., "SER # 35, Tension Regulation,"
Reliance Electric Engineering Reports 1968.
Diameter Sizing of Rolls in Bridles that Utilize Powder Clutches
Copyright 2002 Rockell Automation, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in USA.