This paper evaluates the results of research aimed at changing the rolling speed and the effect of foreign particles in the steel strip, as well as the forces in the rolling process. It also compares the correlation of lab results, theoretical expectations and real-life observations. It supplements the already existing practices aimed at strip-break elimination that were developed and implemented worldwide. Records from a five-stand tandem mill were used for the data analysis. The historical databases developed based on incidents (strip breaks) since 2013 were used; the detailed position of each strip break was documented, along with defects found at the portions of steel strips that broke or the information that no defect was found. The paper contains an evaluation of metallographic analyses of the samples of the strip breaks.
Keywords: defects; foreign materials; rolling forces; strip breaks.