NEXTSENSE GmbH

Continuous monitoring of rolling and drawing mill production has become a critical factor in the steel industry. To keep costs for quality control at bay measurement expert NEXTSENSE developed an affordable profile measurement system ATON Wire - applicable for long products with round cross-section, like wires, bars and tubes.

There is a vast array of applications for the ATON Wire in your steel mill and most of them are focused on optimizing costs for you. Monitoring dimensional accuracy over the entire coil length allows you to instantaneously inspect and deal with faulty products, thus increasing your product quality standards. Checking roll and die wear will make roll and die changes plannable. Using on-line measurement reduces the time for product changes. Eliminating sample cutting will reduce waste and therefore material costs. Furthermore, full documentation of the whole production process is ensured.

The profile measurement system has an accuracy of 5 µm and a measuring range of 1 mm to 50 mm diameter. The ATON Wire comes in three different versions (Cold, Warm and Hot) depending on the temperature of the material. The maximum temperature for ATON Wire Warm is 200°C and for ATON Wire Hot it is 1.200 °C. Both versions use integrated active cooling technology, which keeps the sensor cool in a well-insulated housing. ATON Wire Hot also integrates air purge to keep dust and humidity away from the measurement area. Thus, you don’t have to spend money on expensive pressurized air for air purge or additional air conditioning.

In order to achieve customer-friendly pricing, NEXTSENSE made use of established principles and technologies to develop the ATON Wire. ATON Wire includes two laser shadow measurement sensors in perpendicular orientation to measure diameter and ovality of the contour at the same time. The gauge size allows the use of ATON Wire even in the narrow space between rolling stands.

The ATON Wire is Industry 4.0 ready and can also connect to IBA process data acquisition systems. The production planning systems can remotely control ATON systems and collect measurement data summaries, both through a level 2 interface. ATON Wire always comes with a Touch Panel PC for displaying the measurement result during production, storing quality data for years and for retrieving historic data.

The device also includes excellent global service. Be it on-site training, on-site commissioning, or help with maintenance, the service team of NEXTSENSE is your trusted partner.

Quality control easily comes with high investment for measurement instruments, bringing return only in years. High quality for a reasonable price was the main driver for NEXTSENSE to develop ATON Wire. The system’s return on investment usually only takes 3 to 9 months. Mill operators will definitely benefit significantly from enhanced product quality and higher throughput in their production and increase yield.