Optical position and length measurement

A precondition for the automated charging of walking-beam furnaces, especially if charging in two rows, is the precise positioning of the charge material. A laser optical position measuring system has, for this reason, been developed for the automatic positioning of slabs in a walking-beam furnace. Its two measuring sensors are installed at the furnace feed table and measure the position of both slab ends.

The measurement data are used by the computer for automatic positioning according to load sheets. Two lasers are installed in either measuring sensor to be able to scan also slabs with turned-up or -down ends. At the furnace depicted here, it is possible to measure slabs upward of 2500 mm in length with a measurement uncertainty of +/- 10 mm.