Title of Invention	A SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC MEASUREMENT OF DIMENSIONS AND OTHER PARTICULARS OF HOT BLOOMS IN A STEEL PLANT
Abstract	A system for automatic measurement of dimensions and other particulars of hot blooms in a steel plant, characterised in that the system comprises of five CCD cameras C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5, such as herein described, being housed one each in a water cooling jacket WCJ, such as herein described, and a photo sensor PS, each being positioned at different distances and locations with respect to a hot bloom B moving on a roll table R in a blooming mill; an industrial type PC/AT personal computer provided with a software, suitably programmed in C language, for computing the dimensional and other particulars of the moving hot bloom, based on the electrical outputs of the said cameras and photo sensor read into the computer; and two display units D1 and D2 installed one each at two operator's pulpits of the blooming mill for exhibiting instantaneously the computer outputs for the required diementions and other particulars of the hot bloom. Reference :- Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.

Title of Invention

A SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC MEASUREMENT OF DIMENSIONS AND OTHER PARTICULARS OF HOT BLOOMS IN A STEEL PLANT

Abstract

A system for automatic measurement of dimensions and other particulars of hot blooms in a steel plant, characterised in that the system comprises of five CCD cameras C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5, such as herein described, being housed one each in a water cooling jacket WCJ, such as herein described, and a photo sensor PS, each being positioned at different distances and locations with respect to a hot bloom B moving on a roll table R in a blooming mill; an industrial type PC/AT personal computer provided with a software, suitably programmed in C language, for computing the dimensional and other particulars of the moving hot bloom, based on the electrical outputs of the said cameras and photo sensor read into the computer; and two display units D1 and D2 installed one each at two operator's pulpits of the blooming mill for exhibiting instantaneously the computer outputs for the required diementions and other particulars of the hot bloom. Reference :- Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.

Full Text	The invention relates to a system for automatic measurement of dimensions and other particulars of hot steel blooms in a steel plant. The invention relates more particularly to an integrated system comprising a number of CCD cameras installed at various selected positions in a blooming mill and a photo sensor located adjacent to a 1000 Ton Shear for cutting the crop ends as well as the bloom into cut-pieces when required, the electrical outputs of the cameras and photo sensor corresponding to the instantaneous width, height, length of blooms, and length of front and rear crop ends of blooms are supplied to an industrial grade personal computer provided with a suitably programmed software for computing and displaying the dimensional and other processing parameters of the blooms at the operator's pulpits. In the existing system, the dimensions of hot steel blooms are 'measured manually after stopping the movement of the blooms on the roll table of a blooming mill, using the conventional steel calipers and scales. The drawbacks of the existing system are; (i) it is time-consuming and not sufficiently accurate, (ii) it is inconvenient for the operating personnel to take measurements on hot blooms; and (iii) it can not provide additional processing data such as optimum volume and weight of bloom after cropping, weight of crops cut and weight of ingot rolled, and percentage of yield obtained at 1000 Ton Shear. The object of the invention is to provide an automatic system for determining the dimensional and other production - 2 - parameters required for blooming mills, billet mills as well as rail and structural mills with adequate accuracy, and instanteneously, under moving condition of hot blooms on the roll tables in blooming mills. The other object is to increase the productivity of blooming as well as of billet mills and to reduce wastage of materials in said mills by way of cutting over-sized crop ends and over-weight or wider weight cut-pieces of blooms transferred to rail and structural mills. The invention is described fully and particularly in an unrestricted manner with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a schematic view of the invented system; and Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of the water cooling Jacket for the CCD cameras used in the invented system. Referring to Fig. 1, five CCD cameras C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5 and one photo sensor PS are installed at different distances and locations with respect to a hot bloom in a blooming mill in which hot bloom B is moving from left to right on a roll table R, camera C1 being used for measuring the width, camera C2 for the height, camera C3 in association with photo sensor TS for the total length including the lengths of front and rear crop ends as well as total length without front crop ends,camera C4 for the cut-Diece length of bloom for rail and structural mills and camera C5 for the total length of bloom for billet mill after cutting off the crop ends. The values of bloom - 3 - width and height are exhibited in display units D1 and D2. The values of total length (i.e. including lengths of front and rear crops), desired crop lengths to be cut, actual crop lengths cut, desired cut-piece lengths, actual cut-piece lengths, total bloom lengths, yield for the individual blooms, total crop lengths cut are exhibited in display unit D2. The CCD camera is a precision electro-optical instrument which is housed in a compact, light weight and rugged enclosure and contains a line-scan image sensor in the form of an array of Dhoto diodes which converts the infra red radiations emitted from the hot bloom into discrete charge packets. Each camera is optionally fitted with a viewer for aligning the array of photo diodes with the bloom dimension measured. The charge packets after a given exposure time are transferred into two high-speed CCD shift registers for transport to the camera output. The outputs of all the five cameras are read into the memory of an industrial type personal computer PC/AT provided with a software programmed in C language for the logic defined to meet the requirements of blooming, billet,rail and structural mills. The CCD camera is operable at an outside temperature of 0-55 C. Since the temperature in the neighbourhood of a hot bloom is around 100°C, a water cooling jacket (Fig. 2) is provided for each camera to reduce the temperature outside the camera to be below 40°C. Referring to Fig. 2, the water cooling jacket WCJ comprises of three stainless steel co-axial shells, 1, 2 and 3, front flange 4 and rear flange 5. Camera C is mounted on -4- platform P inside the innermost shell 3. Cooling water is circulated in the annular space between the innermost shell 3 and intermediate shell 2 through inlet nozzles 6, 7 and 8, each of preferred diameter 12.5 mm, and outlet nozzles 9 and 10, each of preferred diameter 6.3 mm. The annular space between intermediate shell 2 and outermost shell 1 is filled with heat insulating materials such as glass wool. The front flange 4 holds a toughened glass plate 11 and blue filter glass 12 to provide the entry for infrared rays emitted from the hot bloom into the camera C. Three air nozzles (not shown) are circumferentially equi-spaced, and directed onto the toughened glass plate 11 for blowing off the dust particles deposited thereon. The rear flange 5 is provided with the platform P for mounting the camera C thereon and holes for the entry of cables for the power supply, output signal and control signal. Cameras C1, C2 and C4 are mounted respectively at a distance of 3.5m, 3.0m and 6.0m from the hot bloom,and cameras C3 and C5 are each positioned at a distance of 12.0m from the hot bloom. Cameras C3 and C4 are each provided with a pan and tilt' mechanism to allow movements thereof along the horizontal and vertical directions. Photo sensor PS is mounted at a required height and angle with respect to the hot bloom in e small housing for the purpose of tracking the front and of a hot bloom before it approaches 1000 Ton Shear. As the front end of a hot bloom oasses the 1000T Ton shear 3, the system displays the width and height of the bloom by means of cameras C1 and C2 respectively, and the total length -5- of the bloom (including the front and rear crops thereof) as well as total length without the front crop ends by means of camera C3 and photo sensor PS. Computer calculates the desired piece length to be cut for rail and structural mill, based on the height and width measured by cameras C1 and C2 and based on bloom volume required by rail and structural mills, and displays the computed data on the display unit D2. This desired cut-piece length of the bloom measured by means of camera C4, is exhibited on the display unit D2 for the operator to cut and ensure desired bloom volume for rail and structural mill . If the bloom without the crop ends is not required to be cut into pieces, the total output length of the bloom, measured by means camera C5, is exhibited on display unit D2. The results of field trials conducted on the invented system have shown that the yield at 1000 Ton Shear of blooming mill increases by 0.3 to 0.5% and reduction of short length generation at rail and structural mills, to 1% from existing level, thereby making the system cost-effective. - 6 - We Claim :- 1. A system for automatic measurement of dimensions and other particulars of hot steel blooms in a steel plant, characterised in that the system comprises of five CCD cameras C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5, such as herein described, being housed one each in a water cooling jacket WCJ, such as herein described, and a photo sensor PS, each being positioned at different distances and locations with respect to a hot bloom B moving on a roll table R in a blooming mill; an industrial type PC/AT personal computer provided with a software, suitably programmed in C language, for computing the dimensional and other particulars of the moving hot bloom, based on the electrical outputs of the said cameras and photo sensor read into the computer; and two display units D1 and D2 installed one each at two operator's pulpits of the blooming mill for exhibiting instanteneously the computer outputs for the required dimensions and other particulars of the hot bloom. 2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each CCD camera is e precision electro-optical instrument, housed in a compact, light weight and rugged enclosure, containing a line-scan image sensor in the form of an array of photo diodes for converting the infra red radiations entering into the camera from the hot bloom into discrete charge packets which are transferred into two high-speed CCD shift registers for transport to the camera output. - 7 - 3. The system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein camera C1 is provided for the measurement of the width, camera C2 for the height, camera C3 for the total length including the lengths of front and rear crop ends of the bloom as well as for the total length without front crop ends, camera C4 for the cut-piece length of the bloom and C5 for the total length of bloom after the two crop ends i.e. front and rear ends are cut off. 4. The system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein cameras C1, C2 and C4 are mounted respectively at a distance of 3.5m, 3.0m and 6.0m, and cameras C3 and C5 are each positioned at a distance of 12.0m from the hot bloom. 5. The system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the water cooling Jacket WCJ comprises of three stainless steel co-axial shells 1, 2 and 3, front flange 4 and rear flange 5, the annular space between the innermost shell 3 and intermediate shell 2 being for circulating cooling water through inlet nozzles 6, 7 and 8, and outlet nozzles 9 and 10, and the annular space between the intermediate shell 2 and outermost shell 1 being filled with heat insulating material like glass wool; the front flange holding a toughened glass plate 11 and blue filter glass 12 for allowing the entry of infra red rays emitted from the hot bloom into the camera C and three air nozzles circumferentially equi-spaced thereon for blowing off the dust particles deposited on the toughened glass plate; and the rear flange having a platform P for mounting the camera C thereon and holes for the entry of - 8 - cables for the power supply, and output and control signals. - 9 - A system for automatic measurement of dimensions and other particulars of hot blooms in a steel plant, characterised in that the system comprises of five CCD cameras C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5, such as herein described, being housed one each in a water cooling jacket WCJ, such as herein described, and a photo sensor PS, each being positioned at different distances and locations with respect to a hot bloom B moving on a roll table R in a blooming mill; an industrial type PC/AT personal computer provided with a software, suitably programmed in C language, for computing the dimensional and other particulars of the moving hot bloom, based on the electrical outputs of the said cameras and photo sensor read into the computer; and two display units D1 and D2 installed one each at two operator's pulpits of the blooming mill for exhibiting instantaneously the computer outputs for the required diementions and other particulars of the hot bloom. Reference :- Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.

Full Text

The invention relates to a system for automatic measurement of dimensions and other particulars of hot steel blooms in a steel plant.
The invention relates more particularly to an integrated system comprising a number of CCD cameras installed at various selected positions in a blooming mill and a photo sensor located adjacent to a 1000 Ton Shear for cutting the crop ends as well as the bloom into cut-pieces when required, the electrical outputs of the cameras and photo sensor corresponding to the instantaneous width, height, length of blooms, and length of front and rear crop ends of blooms are supplied to an industrial grade personal computer provided with a suitably programmed software for computing and displaying the dimensional and other processing parameters of the blooms at the operator's pulpits.
In the existing system, the dimensions of hot steel blooms are 'measured manually after stopping the movement of the blooms on the roll table of a blooming mill, using the conventional steel calipers and scales. The drawbacks of the existing system are; (i) it is time-consuming and not sufficiently accurate, (ii) it is inconvenient for the operating personnel to take measurements on hot blooms; and (iii) it can not provide additional processing data such as optimum volume and weight of bloom after cropping, weight of crops cut and weight of ingot rolled, and percentage of yield obtained at 1000 Ton Shear. The object of the invention is to provide an automatic system for determining the dimensional and other production
- 2 -

parameters required for blooming mills, billet mills as well as rail and structural mills with adequate accuracy, and
instanteneously, under moving condition of hot blooms on the roll tables in blooming mills.
The other object is to increase the productivity of blooming as well as of billet mills and to reduce wastage of materials in said mills by way of cutting over-sized crop ends and over-weight or wider weight cut-pieces of blooms transferred to rail and structural mills.
The invention is described fully and particularly in an unrestricted manner with reference to the accompanying drawings in which
Figure 1 is a schematic view of the invented system; and
Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of the water cooling Jacket for the CCD cameras used in the invented system.
Referring to Fig. 1, five CCD cameras C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5 and one photo sensor PS are installed at different distances and locations with respect to a hot bloom in a blooming mill in which hot bloom B is moving from left to right on a roll table R, camera C1 being used for measuring the width, camera C2 for the height, camera C3 in association with photo sensor TS for the total length including the lengths of front and rear crop ends as well as total length without front crop ends,camera C4 for the cut-Diece length of bloom for rail and structural mills and camera C5 for the total length of bloom for billet mill after cutting off the crop ends. The values of bloom
- 3 -

width and height are exhibited in display units D1 and D2. The values of total length (i.e. including lengths of front and rear crops), desired crop lengths to be cut, actual crop lengths cut, desired cut-piece lengths, actual cut-piece lengths, total bloom lengths, yield for the individual blooms, total crop lengths cut are exhibited in display unit D2.
The CCD camera is a precision electro-optical instrument
which is housed in a compact, light weight and rugged enclosure
and contains a line-scan image sensor in the form of an array of
Dhoto diodes which converts the infra red radiations emitted from
the hot bloom into discrete charge packets. Each camera is
optionally fitted with a viewer for aligning the array of photo
diodes with the bloom dimension measured. The charge packets
after a given exposure time are transferred into two high-speed
CCD shift registers for transport to the camera output. The
outputs of all the five cameras are read into the memory of
an industrial type personal computer PC/AT provided with a software programmed in C language for the logic defined to meet the requirements of blooming, billet,rail and structural mills.
The CCD camera is operable at an outside temperature of 0-55 C. Since the temperature in the neighbourhood of a hot bloom is around 100°C, a water cooling jacket (Fig. 2) is provided for each camera to reduce the temperature outside the camera to be below 40°C.
Referring to Fig. 2, the water cooling jacket WCJ comprises of three stainless steel co-axial shells, 1, 2 and 3, front flange 4 and rear flange 5. Camera C is mounted on
-4-

platform P inside the innermost shell 3. Cooling water is circulated in the annular space between the innermost shell 3 and intermediate shell 2 through inlet nozzles 6, 7 and 8, each of preferred diameter 12.5 mm, and outlet nozzles 9 and 10, each of preferred diameter 6.3 mm. The annular space between intermediate shell 2 and outermost shell 1 is filled with heat insulating materials such as glass wool. The front flange 4 holds a toughened glass plate 11 and blue filter glass 12 to
provide the entry for infrared rays emitted from the hot bloom
into the camera C. Three air nozzles (not shown) are circumferentially equi-spaced, and directed onto the toughened glass plate 11 for blowing off the dust particles deposited thereon. The rear flange 5 is provided with the platform P for mounting the camera C thereon and holes for the entry of cables for the power supply, output signal and control signal. Cameras C1, C2 and C4 are mounted respectively at a distance of 3.5m, 3.0m and 6.0m from the hot bloom,and cameras C3 and C5 are each positioned at a distance of 12.0m from the hot bloom. Cameras C3 and C4 are each provided with a pan and tilt' mechanism to allow movements thereof along the horizontal and vertical directions. Photo sensor PS is mounted at a required height and angle with respect to the hot bloom in e small housing for the purpose of tracking the front and
of a hot bloom before it approaches 1000 Ton Shear.
As the front end of a hot bloom oasses the 1000T Ton
shear 3, the system displays the width and height of the bloom by means of cameras C1 and C2 respectively, and the total length
-5-

of the bloom (including the front and rear crops thereof) as well as total length without the front crop ends by means of camera C3 and photo sensor PS. Computer calculates the desired piece length to be cut for rail and structural mill, based on the height and width measured by cameras C1 and C2 and based on bloom volume required by rail and structural mills, and displays the computed data on the display unit D2. This desired cut-piece length of the bloom measured by means of camera C4, is exhibited on the display unit D2 for the operator to cut and ensure desired bloom volume for rail and structural mill .
If the bloom without the crop ends is not required to be cut into pieces, the total output length of the bloom, measured by means camera C5, is exhibited on display unit D2.
The results of field trials conducted on the invented system have shown that the yield at 1000 Ton Shear of blooming mill increases by 0.3 to 0.5% and reduction of short length generation at rail and structural mills, to 1% from existing level, thereby making the system cost-effective.
- 6 -

We Claim :-
1. A system for automatic measurement of dimensions and other particulars of hot steel blooms in a steel plant, characterised in that the system comprises of five CCD cameras C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5, such as herein described, being housed one each in a water cooling jacket WCJ, such as herein described, and a photo sensor PS, each being positioned at different distances and locations with respect to a hot bloom B moving on a roll table R in a blooming mill; an industrial type PC/AT personal computer provided with a software, suitably programmed in C language, for computing the dimensional and other particulars of the moving hot bloom, based on the electrical outputs of the said cameras and photo sensor read into the computer; and two display units D1 and D2 installed one each at two operator's pulpits of the blooming mill for exhibiting instanteneously the computer outputs for the required dimensions and other particulars of the hot bloom.
2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each CCD camera is e precision electro-optical instrument, housed in a compact, light weight and rugged enclosure, containing a line-scan image sensor in the form of an array of photo diodes for converting the infra red radiations entering into the camera
from the hot bloom into discrete charge packets which are transferred into two high-speed CCD shift registers for transport to the camera output.
- 7 -

3. The system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein camera C1 is provided for the measurement of the width, camera C2 for the height, camera C3 for the total length including the lengths of front and rear crop ends of the bloom as well as for the total length without front crop ends, camera C4 for the cut-piece length of the bloom and C5 for the total length of bloom after the two crop ends i.e. front and rear ends are cut off.
4. The system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein cameras C1, C2 and C4 are mounted respectively at a distance of 3.5m, 3.0m and 6.0m, and cameras C3 and C5 are each positioned at a distance of 12.0m from the hot bloom.
5. The system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the water cooling Jacket WCJ comprises of three stainless steel co-axial shells 1, 2 and 3, front flange 4 and rear flange 5, the annular space between the innermost shell 3 and intermediate shell 2 being for circulating cooling water through inlet nozzles 6, 7 and 8, and outlet nozzles 9 and 10, and the annular space between the intermediate shell 2 and outermost shell 1 being filled with heat insulating material like glass wool; the front flange holding a toughened glass plate 11 and blue filter glass 12 for allowing the entry of infra red rays emitted from the hot bloom into the camera C and three air nozzles circumferentially equi-spaced thereon for blowing off the dust particles deposited on the toughened glass plate; and the rear flange having a platform P for mounting the camera C thereon and holes for the entry of
- 8 -

cables for the power supply, and output and control signals.

- 9 -
A system for automatic measurement of dimensions and other particulars of hot blooms in a steel plant, characterised in that the system comprises of five CCD cameras C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5, such as herein described, being housed one each in a water cooling jacket WCJ, such as herein described, and a photo sensor PS, each being positioned at different distances and locations with respect to a hot bloom B moving on a roll table R in a blooming mill; an industrial type PC/AT personal computer provided with a software, suitably programmed in C language, for computing the dimensional and other particulars of the moving hot bloom, based on the electrical outputs of the said cameras and photo sensor read into the computer; and two display units D1 and D2 installed one each at two operator's pulpits of the blooming mill for exhibiting instantaneously the computer outputs for the required diementions and other particulars of the hot bloom.
Reference :- Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

00047-cal-1999-abstract.pdf

00047-cal-1999-assignment.pdf

00047-cal-1999-claims.pdf

00047-cal-1999-correspondence.pdf

00047-cal-1999-description(complete).pdf

00047-cal-1999-drawings.pdf

00047-cal-1999-form-1.pdf

00047-cal-1999-form-2.pdf

00047-cal-1999-form-3.pdf

00047-cal-1999-form-5.pdf

00047-cal-1999-pa.pdf

« Previous Patent

Next Patent »

Patent Number

194034

Indian Patent Application Number

47/CAL/1999

PG Journal Number

30/2009

Publication Date

24-Jul-2009

Grant Date

13-Apr-2005

Date of Filing

21-Jan-1999

Name of Patentee

STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LIMITED

Applicant Address

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CENTRE FOR IRON & STEEL, A GOVT. OF INDIA ENTERPRISE, ISPAT BHAWAN, LODHI ROAD

Inventors:

#	Inventor's Name	Inventor's Address
1	MOKKAPATY GOPALA KRISHNA	RDCIS/SAIL, DORANDA, RANCHI-834002
2	SUSHIL CHANDRA KHAN	RDCIS/SAIL, DORANDA, RANCHI-834002
3	MALAY RANJAN KHARE	RDCIS/SAIL, DORANDA, RANCHI-834002
4	KOLLURU SRI RAMA MURTY	BHILAI STEEL PLANT SAIL, BHILAI
5	SHANMUGAM ILLANGOVAN	RDCIS/SAIL, DORANDA, RANCHI-834002

PCT International Classification Number

B23P25/00

PCT International Application Number

N/A

PCT International Filing date

PCT Conventions:

#	PCT Application Number	Date of Convention	Priority Country
1			NA