Initial situation:

Non-Contact Inline Supervision in the Production of Continuous Material

Due to the production process, the quality of continuous material is often affected by chips, scratches and geometrical deviations which represent a widespread problem. It is not possible to reduce significantly corresponding cost without inline quality supervision integrated immediately after the process.

Particular challenges

The basic source of high quality cost in the case of rejections is the fact that continuous material is normally manufactured at a high production speed of 20 to 100 m/min. Another difficulty: The geometry must be detected at a complete revolution angle of 360°. Precision by camera supervision suffers from frequent color changes and presence of particular surface structures, so inline inspection immediately after the production process requires a very stable and quick acting 2D/3D optical measuring method.

QuellTech solution

The problem can be solved by a sophisticated configuration of several QuellTech 2D/3D laser scanners, analyzing the surface of the continuous material at the total angle of 360°. Without any decrease in precision, the detection rate can be adapted to the very high running speed. The QuellTech 3D surface software compares the results to preset tolerances, emitting an alarm to the master system in any case of an identified defect. Length coordinates and duration of the defect are transmitted simultaneously.

Benefits for the client

Whenever a lasting defect becomes obvious, the process can be stopped nearly without any interruption. In the case of limited defects, stored coordinates and length prove to be useful for after-treatment, e.g. to remove to concerned segment from the material. The rejection rate is considerably lowered; and slow decrease of quality is recognized at an early stage, thus enabling corrective action to be implemented in time.