German steel plant focuses on IR cameras

Duisburg, Germany - Engineers at the Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann GmbH (HKM), steelworks in Duisburg are using infrared camera technology to inspect, maintain and optimize production processes

The German company manufactures pig iron and steel and also operates a coke plant and a sintering plant, a factory where iron-bearing particles are formed into pellets or pulverised to be charged again into the blast furnace.

“Steel production is a long, powerful, energy-intensive chain of processes,” notes Ralf Ponczeck, “If something goes wrong, the whole chain is blocked, usually with unpredictable consequences for workforce and infrastructure. Infrared contributes to keeping the production going.”

Ponczeck and colleague Dirk Ehrich are responsible for thermography at the HKM plant. Both technicians are ITC-certified Level III thermographers and are assigned to HKM’s Energy Management Department, which has a remit to determine and reduce the plant’s energy output.

The technicians use a FLIR P640 infrared camera, equipped with 14-bit FireWire video streaming calibrated to +2000°C and equipped with 24° and 45° lenses. With a 640x480 pixel resolution camera is equipped to inspect hazardous areas from a safe distance and can function in extreme conditions in terms of temperature, dust and thermal load.

Process engineers responsible for production levels call on them to inspect or monitor the heat load on engines, gears, structural casting plant elements as well as the proper functioning of cooling elements which are in direct contact with hot molten steel rounds.

In addition to inspection tasks, Ponczeck and Ehrich gather thermographic evidence to determine thresholds and severity criteria for vital production processes and units. They use the ThermaCAM Researcher software for temperature and infrared image analysis, to calculate relevant temperature development models.

“We use a three-fold classic severity criteria scheme for electrical inspections, but our steel process inspection results are based on our experience and the data we gather,” concludes Ehrich, noting that HKM is continuing to find new applications for the IR camera at the plant.