Non-Contact Infrared Temperature Measurement

4.     Applications

There are numerous well known applications in the steel industries. The new properties of the introduced IR-imager open up many new applications, two of them are illustrated below.

1.5   Vacuum Steel – Degasification

The vacuum degasification of molten steel is a common method to remove unwanted elements. It is especially used for producing high quality steel. The molten steel from the melting furnace is poured into a chamber where a vacuum will be generated (pressure 5mbar). The IR-imager is located in the hood of the chamber able to monitor the whole procedure from the early beginning up to the end. The main job is to control the degasification starting when the steel surface is covered completely with slag up to end of the process when all slag is gone. The monitoring of the chamber walls for damages and arising bubbles is the secondary task. Here are some characteristic images for the process:

1.6   Cement Kiln Burning Zone monitoring /2/

The monitoring of a cement kiln shell is a well solved task for more than 20 years. Viewing inside the kiln was always made with TV-cameras and dual band pyrometers. It was always difficult to bring the information from the camera and pyrometer together but now, the introduced IR-imager can do this in a very simple way by replacing the TV-cam. 

Fig. 9: IR-imager inserted through the cement kiln hood wall

Fig. 10: IR-image taken from the kiln hood, burner located on the right.

The IR-image shown above demonstrates the high dynamic range of the camera impressively: Both main objects in the scene the wall with the clearly visible tile structures (foreground left) and the very hot environment inside of the kiln (background, right) are measured without reaching the end of the measurement range. Please note that the gray scale in the above printed can not cover the full temperature range. In the colored image mode the full dynamic temperature range can be displayed.

5.     Summary

The newly introduced high temperature IR-Imager offers a wide dynamic range for a variety of industrial process measurement /control applications and is expanding very fast. Particularly, the camera with cooling tube and bore scope lens which are leading to a number of growing applications presenting new unexplored images and data that has never been previously realized.

SUPPORT

Process Sensors Corporation located in Franklin Lakes N.J., provides sales and technical support for clients located in the western hemisphere territory.

Scott Nagle Phone: 201-485-8771 ; Fax 201-485-8770 ; e-mail: snagle@processsensors.com

©2008. Process Sensors Corp.