Aluminum ingots - Import export

QuellTech Solution: The performance of a manual inspection cannot be compared with the speed and the repeatability of a contactless QuellTech Q4-1000 laser scanner. It is even possible to install several instruments in parallel to cover the whole width of the ingot with one single scan. These instruments are mounted on an existing portal and correctly synchronized, so that interaction of the laser light originating from the other scanners is excluded. The QuellTech laser line scanners produce 3D point cloud of the raw ingot surface, and the software calculates the coordinates of the highest and deepest levels of this surface. After scalping the flat surface can be scanned again for any defects. Benefits for the Client: Thanks to QuellTech’s wide area laser line scanners, the cycle times for ingot scalping could considerably be reduced, and excessive material scrap due to a too low scalping level is prevented.

Particular Challenges of the Application: By tactile equipment, determination of the deepest point on a rough metal surface is neither simple or precise. As a consequence, often either too much material is removed, or the surface is still covered with defects which have to be eliminated by a following milling cycle. The equipment is arranged in parallel, so that the complete width of the slabs is covered. The sensors are calibrated to a common coordinate system and mounted on a movable gantry. Before measurement, the slabs are fixed in place. The scanners mounted on the gantry are guided over the measuring object, driven by an electric motor. The point cloud recorded by the four scanners is consolidated in a PC by means of the QuellTech image processing software which calculates the difference between highest and lowest point of the corresponding surface and compensates for possible inclination of the slab (detrending).