Concast Ag

Nico Littooij

Paul Mueller

Daniel Groetzinger

Semifinished products, especially strand sections that are cut off from continuous cast strands, are marked in steel mills and rolling mills so that individual pieces can be tracked. The marks applied or attached to the pieces have to be machine-readable in a sorting station. Marking and reading devices are expensive and produce undesired reading errors. The aim of the invention is therefore to create a method and a device that avoid the aforementioned disadvantages and that allow for a reliable and cost-efficient identification of semifinished products. For this purpose, a first camera is used in an identification station to obtain digitized images of optically visible separating section-specific and strand section-specific surface features on an identification surface and the images are stored in a database. A second camera is used in a sorting station to obtain digitized images of the same identification surface and these images are used in the database for an identification by comparing them with the stored images of the first camera.

Method and device for the automated recognition of semi-finished products

The invention relates to a marking machine for metallurgical products, more particularly continuous cast products, comprising at least one marking stamp and a striking device for striking the marking stamp into the product to be marked. The striking device is provided with a striking bolt and a striker spring driving said bolt. The striking bolt strikes the marking stamp that is placed in striking position by actuating the striker spring with an actuation element that is driven by an electric motor, thereby hammering the marking stamp into the product to be marked. Every time the marking stamp is subjected to the action of the spring, the stamp receives an evenly high kinetic energy thereby causing an evenly high striking depth of the marking. The spring in association with the electric motor drive enables fast, precise and easily controllable execution of the individual working steps of the machine. The ensures a high marking repetition rate.

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Hinwil, Switzerland

Nico Littooij