Abstract: The construction, characteristic and shift strategy of a taper work roll were investigated for the problem of edge drop control during continuous cold rolling. A finite element model was built to analyze the strip shape control capability of the taper work roll, common crown work roll and SmartCrown work roll contrastively, and the application of this new strip shape control technology to real production was discussed based on the debugging tests on a large production mill. The results show that the use of a taper roll can reduce the edge drop and total crown of strip steel efficiently.