Application of High-temperature Imaging Thermometers in the Iron and Steel Industry
Temperature measurement is required in many processes in the steel industry. But in most cases, thermocouples are used. However, in some applications, contact measurement is not feasible because there is solid steel in motion or its environment is not suitable for the use of contact probes. These special application scenarios will undoubtedly benefit from the use of high-temperature camera thermometers for image temperature measurement.
The combination of remote camera and non-contact temperature measurement can be well applied in some steel processes, such as heating furnaces and rolling mills. The high-temperature camera thermometer provides an excellent tool for optimizing monitoring and temperature measurement functions by flexibly combining its unique video imaging with infrared temperature measurement. This combination has opened up new avenues for steel mills that have not yet used cameras, especially making furnace maintenance easier. The following focuses on the potential applications of high-temperature camera thermometers in steel plants, and provides relevant introductions for measuring the temperature of solid and liquid steel.
Steel industry&temperature measurement
Generally speaking, measuring the temperature of steel with an infrared thermometer is difficult due to its low emissivity property. Radiance is a property of matter that indicates how much infrared radiation is emitted from the same black object (which is an object with a emissivity of 1 and represents an excellent radiation object). The higher the radiation value, the higher the energy reaching the detector. Basically, the higher the emissivity, the easier it is to measure the temperature of an object.
For steel products, emissivity varies with temperature, surface conditions, and the chemical composition of the steel. One variable that has a significant impact on emissivity is surface conditions. For example, the emissivity of unoxidized stainless steel (such as when processed in a factory) is approximately 0.4. For highly oxidized (more "black") surfaces, this value increases to 0.8. For surfaces that have been polished (very "bright"), the emissivity decreases to 0.2. Since the high-temperature camera thermometer provides a flexible way to change the emissivity of the cursor selectable area on each terminal screen, as long as we know the parameters and indicators of the processed raw materials, we can obtain reliable temperature measurements.
