Dr. Bingji (Benjamin) Li - Mill Model and Pass Schedule

 
Dr. Benjamin Li earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. (Germany, 1995) all on steel rolling and has developed an entire set of rolling process models. He is also a software engineer on mill applications (Level 2, roll pass, etc.) with 10 years of experience and 30 computer classes completed throughout his work as software engineer. Since Feb. 2008, he has published near 10 papers on Level 2 and roll pass, etc.

After receiving his B.S. in 1985 from the University of Iron & Steel Technology Beijing (now University of Science and Technology Beijing, or USTB), he taught classes on steel rolling technologies in a professional training college under a large steel company. During his graduate study in USTB he was selected as the top-30 best student of China who qualified for Ph.D. scholarship in studying abroad, so he went to Germany in 1990.

Dr. Li earned his Ph.D. on rolling process modeling in 1995 from the Institute of Metal Forming of TU Bergakademie Freiberg (the oldest university in mining and metallurgy), Germany. The success of his project, which was with equiv. US$500,000 DFG funding and a workload initially planned for two Ph.D. programs, led to the industrial-scale FEM application in shape rolling. During the research he was also specially assigned to direct a Master (Diplom) student and several research students. The results and concepts were highly recognized by well-known scholars (e.g. Pawelski, Kopp and Hensel) and applied in the world's top companies such as then Mannesmann Demag (now SMS-Demag), and he was also invited by Danieli to Italy for three times. Shortly before he completed his Ph.D. study, he was offered a Senior Engineer position in Morgan Construction Co., USA.

In Morgan, Dr. Li focused on the rolling mill model development and established an entire set of rolling process models such as those to predict metal/roll deformation, force and torque during rolling, and microstructure evolution during rolling and controlled cooling. The models were developed through evaluation of a 15-years rolling test in Germany, a 5-year mill-test in Morgan, various published data and numerous mill site data that Morgan collected all over the world. He also completed mill projects such as then GST 19" bar mill roll pass design and then ASW wire block pass development. As early as in 1996 he published his first book on the mill process modeling (ISBN 3-86012-029-8, in German).

Dr. Li have been on the model-based mill software development since he started evening computer classes in 1998 and throughout his positions as Level 2 software engineer and Level 2 model consultant in steel mills. He developed Level 2 systems for Cascade Steel EAF, LMF and Caster, etc., which used C/C++ for function implementation, VB for interface and Oracle as backend. He also improved OSM (Oregon Steel Mills) plate steckle mill Level 2 model by applying efficient learning, improved flow stress model and metallurgical principles. More recently, he integrated metallurgical principles into Level 2 model and customized the Level 2 systems (those for EAF, LMF, Caster, Plate Mill, etc.) for various mill environments. In the mean time, Dr. Li developed dozens of software packages (e.g. those in www.metalpass.com), and wrote his second book: Steel Mill, Process Modeling and Computer Application (available for consulting services only).

Dr. Li is one of the major developers on steel rolling mill models in USA (see a review). He is now actively helping steel mills to improve their Level 2 for high accuracy, by applying his rolling process/product models and by pursuing intelligent learning and uninterrupted upgrade, etc. He also actively conducts roll pass improvement and roll pass software development, etc. Contracts in 2009 are such as a nine-months project on Level 2 model improvement in China, and Level 2, roll pass and training in S. Korea, India and Pakistan, etc. See areas of his mill consulting and his past mill projects.

For detailed information on Dr. Li, please visit www.metalpass.com/bli (or www.bli1.com) for resume and past projects. You may contact Dr. Li or other Metal Pass colleagues via email admin@metalpass.com or phone (1) 412 621 3836, or Dr. Li's cell phone (1) 412 897 7696.