Challenges

CLOSED ON: 17 JAN 2020  |  REWARD: INR 8,00,000
Reward money is paid in exchange of legally acquiring the solution, implementing it to solve the problem and meeting the success criteria. Milestones for paying the reward money would depend upon the complexity of challenge and maturity of the proposed solution, which would be discussed with the solver as soon as the proposed solution is selected by us.
Closed

Short Description:

We are looking for an online system for surface inspection of steel sheets for roughness, hardness and shape measurements.

Challenge Details

Temper rolling mill is used to suppress yield point elongation in low carbon steels, by providing elongation to the material beyond its elastic region. The coils are passed through the rolling mill at a maximum speed of 1830 mpm. The coil thickness varies from 0.17 mm to 0.60 mm and the width varies from 600 mm to 1200 mm. The minimum coil diameter is 762 mm and maximum is 2075mm. Presently, the coils are inspected to check surface condition, shape, hardness and strip roughness manually. The inspection process is as explained below –

Surface Inspection - 3 to 5 wraps are removed from the outer diameter and inspection of both (top & bottom) the surfaces are carried out visually as shown in figure 1. Various defects include Luider Band, Dent, Pitted Surface, rough spots, scratches, fluty marks etc.

Shape/Curling - A sample of approximately 800mm X 800 mm is cut after removing 3 to 5 wraps from the coil. One edge of the sheet, across the rolling direction is stuck to the magnet on the board of measuring fixture and the other edge is allowed to hang freely. The lift (when the sheet curls up) from the board is measured through a measuring scale as shown in figure 2. This helps in measurement of curling of sample 800 mm X 800 mm either across or along the rolling direction.

Hardness - A sample of approximately 1 sq. inch is cut after removing 3 to 5 wraps from 3 locations (both edges & middle) across the rolling direction of the coil. The sample is measured on Rockwell superficial scale as shown in figure 3.

Roughness - A sample of approximately 6 inches in width is cut across the rolling direction. A roughness tester is used to measure the strip at 6 locations of the sample (3 locations on the top and 3 on bottom surfaces) to measure the overall roughness as shown in figure 4.

We are looking for

  1. Automatic online (i.e. when the coil is being processed) surface inspection system for both the surfaces (top & bottom). Inspection needs to be carried out on the complete surface area of the moving coil to identify the defects like marks, scratches, coil slips etc.
  2. Shape/curling measurement (which requires identification of curling of a sample 800 mm X 800 mm either across or along the rolling direction of the same size) should be performed without manual intervention.
  3. Automatic online hardness measurement should be performed at 3 locations (both edges & middle) of the coil
  4. Similarly, an online roughness measurement should be performed for top & bottom surface of the coil.

Online measurement of all the attributes with recording facilities is desired. Ideally, all the attributes should be measured by an integrated setup, but different units will also work if the space becomes a constraint.

Success Criteria:

  1. All the attributes measured / checked has to match with the results of current practices.

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