Description

This paper discusses a system to detect porosity during the continuous casting of copper bar. This system uses an infrared camera to measure surface temperature as the copper bar exits the casting wheel and after cooling. A statistical algorithm uses the resulting temperature profile to reveal the existence or absence of porosity within the bar. This profile is curve fitted to an nth degree polynomial and is then evaluated by analyzing the residuals at peak temperatures. Using this procedure, bar porosity less than 1/8th of an inch in diameter has been detected.