The identification of paint marked or stamped identifications on steel products is meanwhile a reliable process. Nearly unreadable codes can be identified with sophisticated image processing algorithms. Precondition is a carefull training of character sets, and a suitable illumination- and camera system.

With the help of innovative image processing in combination with a database based plausibility check a reading rate of nearly 100% is realistic.

LogoTek offers OCR- and code reading systems on basis of high resolution cameras, sophisticated illumination and software. 

Application sample: Identification of Blooms
In a Taiwanese steel plant a system for the identification of blooms was realized. the system is used to identify blooms in front of the pre-heating furnaces before the rollng mill. Wrong blooms shall be found by the system. The system is reading the 5 digit heat number, and an additional 4 digit code that identifies the single bloom.   

Download application note "Identification of Blooms with Optical Character Recognition (OCR)"

A special scanner application in the steel industry is the slab profile measurement directly at the continuous caster.  LogoTek is using high performance laser scanners of laser class 3B for this task. The scanners are able to measure on red hot steel of temperatures of up to 1100 °C. The scanners are installed at opposite sides of the roller table in a distance of about 500 mm from the slab surface. A robust air cooled protection housing isolates the scanner from the extremely rough conditions of the continuous caster. The slab profile measurement system can provide following information:

• Slab thickness
• Slab profile (geometrical shape of the slab)
• Slab length (needs information about roller table speed)

The  geometrical data is provided in a 3D and 2D format. An archive for the data is provided, using a database. LogoTek can supply a client software to access the archive data.

Infrared cameras are able to supply 2D pictures of the temperature of object surfaces. In a German steel plant LogoTek has realized a thermal imaging system to detect and monitor the temperature of heavy plates on a cooling bed. An infrared camera of the manufacturer FLIR was installed beside the heavy plate cooling bed. The camera picture is transmitted via Wireless LAN into the crane cabin. Purpose of the system is to check that the plates temperature allows magnetizing of the material.  

Another infrared camera application is the check of temperature leakages/isolation failures at furnaces.