Industrial Scanning

Laser Measurement System for the Refractory Lining of Hot Torpedo Ladles, Minteq International GmbH, Germany 19.03.2013

Since their introduction, highspeed laser scanners have become more and more important in the determination of brick thickness of converter vessels and steel ladles. The laser measuring units are used as mobile measuring units or fixed installed systems worldwide.
Besides determination of the residual brick thickness, current laser measuring units enable the determination of the wear rate and wear speed of refractory.
Additionally, information on the bath level, optimization of the tapping angle, evaluation of the bottom tuyeres, as well as the temperature profile of a vessel justify the increased use of laser scanners as process-accompanying instruments.
Besides economic aspects for the use of laser scanners, the increased safety of the aggregates in avoiding dangerous breakthroughs is an important criterion, as they have high significance in the transport of pig iron from the blast furnace to the steelmaking plant. Worldwide, torpedo ladles transport liquid iron on railways, partly on public railway tracks. Especially here, breakthroughs would have serious effects.
Torpedo ladles are becoming increasingly important, as steel plants without a pig iron mixer often need 90% of the torpedo fleet for its standard operation and as a buffer between the blast furnace and converter shop. An outage on one torpedo ladle already results in a severe disturbance of the production process.

Ferrotron, a division of Minteq International GmbH, introduced the laser measuring unit, LaCamĀ® Torpedo, which for the first time enables the laser measurement of hot torpedo ladles from inside the torpedo ladle. The patented measurement method allows for the regular measurements of the refractory lining in a hot condition directly after the tapping. A reliable evaluation
of the actual condition is possible and the refractory lining life can be maximized.

Read the full featured article published in the March 2013 issue of "Iron & Steel Technology", a publication of the Association for Iron & Steel Technology, www.aist.org .