Levelling is the process where large steel coils are straightened and then cut-to-length for a specific requirement. The benefit of this process is that customers can purchase the exact length of material eliminating drop cuts that would result from using stock size sheet or plate.

 

THE CUSTOMER

Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. With nearly 150 years of experience they employ 155,000 staff in 68 countries.

The plate mill in East Chicago is one of the most prestigious in the country. The requirement to allow automatic measurement of both thickness and width of the plate. Thickness are often measured by an isotope gauge or manually by micrometre. The application demanded a non-contact measurement system to measure the thickness from a safe distance whilst avoid the health and safety issue from a radiation gauge. The results should be displayed in the control pulpit and archived for retrospective inspection. An HMI display and large screen display were both provided. The position of the measurement tracks should be freely selectable.

THE SOLUTION: Moduloc Cold C Frame MD82100 for thickness and two synchronised MLS lasers with line output instead of the traditional laser spot beam for width determination using laser/CCD camera triangulation sensors measure both the thickness profile and width. Utilising two pairs of opposing laser sensors, incorporated in a traversable C-shaped measuring frame as can be seen above.