The positive role of surface inspection systems in the world's aluminum industry
CNC Router Qingdao SUBA CNC Technology Co., Ltd , https://www.cncrouter-china.com
Alcan
Alcan, the world's second-largest aluminum company, has installed surface inspection systems at its subsidiary, the Sierra plant in the United States, and at the Nahtecsted plant in Germany. The products of the Sierra plant are supplied to DaimlerChrysler and others. Some users installed a surface inspection system from Cognex on a 2250mm wide strip continuous annealing line. The system is equipped with a camera and is already in operation. Currently, only the defect classification catalog has not been completed.
The Nahtersted plant supplies a wide range of 2100mm aluminum sheets to several automakers. The surface inspection system was installed at the end of 2003. It uses Parsgtec's "dual sensor" system, which is equipped with a diffused light matrix camera and direct light. The line camera is able to adapt to the continuously changing strip surface and various defects.
The collected data is evaluated using a device called a “classifierâ€. The data can be stored for 10 years. The classifier can be used to better identify periodic defects, detect irregular defects and find the cause of these defects until Unconventional defects are now visually inspected only by the naked eye, so it is impossible to track these defects again. The next phase of the plan is to create a network that provides information flow from the surface inspection system to downstream processes. In addition, the defect assessment should provide clearer conclusions about the cause of the defect and plan to avoid these defects.
In addition to the weight reduction advantages of the aluminum industry, the automotive industry faces the severe cost pressure of competition in steel materials. Therefore, in addition to improving product reliability, the cost savings obtained by surface inspection reduce the required finishing work.
In Alcan, due to the introduction of an automatic surface inspection system, quality complaints have been cut in half, and Alcan is striving to achieve the goal of zero defect production.
Alunorf
Alunorf is the world's largest aluminum hot rolling mill in Germany. It installs a surface inspection unit at the exit of a four-high hot rolling mill. As part of the modernization of the rolling mill, the hot-rolled strip produced by this hot rolling mill is neither sold. It is not supplied to other plants, but is further deep-processed or cold-rolled indoors, requiring no defect surface quality anyway.
In September 2004, the HTS4.2 surface inspection system provided by Parsgtec was put into safe operation after 6 months of trial operation. Since April 2004, surface inspection systems have been providing available data that was collected for the development of classifiers, with three engineers involved, a mechanical engineer, a surface inspection system engineer and a Computer expert. The first evaluation after a short run confirmed that the surface of the strip and the inspection behind it were 100%, and the information on the surface state of the strip provided by the surface inspection system was immediate and comprehensive, thus allowing rapid correction of the process timing, eliminating There is a risk that the affected strip will not be found for a long time.
In summary, Alunorf believes that the first investment in surface inspection systems made it possible for hot rolling mills to identify defects early, so it was a success to be able to introduce appropriate process optimization measures at once.
WiseAlloy
WiseAlloy of the United States installed a surface inspection device at the exit of the hot rolling mill, which was evaluated by the operating experience of the 18-month surface inspection device. The purpose of the investment surface inspection device is to be able to immediately identify during the hot rolling process. The shortcomings, immediate corrective measures, not only save costs, but also ensure that the rolled products are delivered on time. A major problem before the surface inspection device is installed is that it is not immediately possible to determine if the strip roll is defect-free before delivery, and the user's dissatisfaction due to repeated rolling, so that the delivery end date cannot be guaranteed. .
WiseAlloy believes that the investment in the surface inspection system is a success. There are no repeated defects in the long-term, and the process can be optimized. After the operation of the new Parsytec system, the probability of the defects caused by the specific upstream process is about 50. %, the next step is to introduce organizational measures to make better real-time decisions and improve upstream and downstream processes.
The role of the surface inspection system
The automatic surface inspection system has largely completed the purpose of the inspection surface indicated by it, that is, the defects on the surface of the strip are found and indicated by the inspection instrument, sorted and classified, and the upstream and downstream processes are carried out using a suitable software system. Communicate and seek corrective measures to optimize the process.
The new future of automated surface inspection systems is how to combine automated data processing, process optimization and management system integration to make inspection data contribute to the value of the product throughout the production process.
4Production tightly serves the aluminum industry, and its 4PFactorySuite system combines standard software with a single solution to increase efficiency and save costs in the shortest possible time. The system consists of three parts: a variable management system, a planning and control system, production control and contract tracking. This system guarantees instantaneous and flexible control of dynamic production processes with maximum production transparency.
Finally, many surface inspection system manufacturers standardize data formats and interfaces to achieve the operation of a comprehensive quality data network.