Intelligent Sensors | Optimization of the Entire Raw Material Handling

Automatic and unmanned product tracking and process supervision – a goal of all production supervisors. Together with our customer, who is running Austria’s most efficient steel plant producing rebar steel, we are accomplishing a comprehensive solution to automatically track the scrap handling and charging process. Our intelligent solution tracks all movements: from the moment the scrap arrives in the plant up to the charging in the electric arc furnace.

The centerpiece of this solution are our intelligent, camera-based sensors called qurve, featuring automatic image and object detection and data processing in a completely embedded solution. Our qurves are installed at different locations along the production process to fulfill the following objectives:

• Detection of number and position of scrap railway wagons
• Detection of the exact position of the two scrap charging cranes in the bay by an unprecedented camera-based positioning solution

Linking our qurves in a comprehensive software solution together with further signals from the scrap charging cranes and the scrap bucket transfer cars we achieve a complete tracking and reporting of all scrap charging operations. The results of this project help the customer in

• achieving full transparency of the scrap handling process
• optimizing the EAF process
• optimize the supply chain management

in a completely automatic solution.