Surface Inspection System for Billets, Bars and Wire Rods

Abstract

Various automatic surface inspection systems for bars and wire rods have been developed and installed by steel makers and wire makers to meet severe requirements for the surface quality.
This paper describes the current and future technologies for automatic surface inspection systems for billets, bars, wire rods and wires.
This paper also describes the recent modification of an automatic inspection system for square billets using Magnetic-particle Testing in Kobe Works, to improve the detection rate of short surface flaws. By using the liatest image processing devices, short surface flaws with the length of 10mm and the depth of 0.3mm can be detected.