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PROCESS CONTROL BASED ON SURFACE TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT FOR HIGH POWER ENERGY FLOW PROCESSES

Objective



The main objective of the project is to develop a universal system for on-line control of different high power energy flow processes. This system is based on high speed pyrometers with one or two-dimensional spatial resolution. Key targeted processes are welding, cutting, cladding, alloying and surface treatment using electron beams, lasers and plasma. These processes are characterised by high temperature heating and cooling rates, wide temperature range, small heat affected zones, which makes them difficult to control and automatize. As a consequence, the quality of the product varies over a large range. Because either temperature measurement on one spot or quasi steady-state surface temperature distribution in a large area are generally unsuitable, temperature gradients need to be controlled directly on-line with a high accuracy. This requires the use of a two dimensional temperature control. About the pyrometers, two systems will be developed : a low price one spot multicolour fast system(number of wavelengths between 2 and 10, time response 50 us, spatial resolution 200 um) and a 2D system.

The major innovation of the proposed 2D pyrometer is its capacity to provide one temperature field composed of 10x10 points every 100 us to 1 s, with a range of 1000-4000 C (or 300-1200 C). The field of vision can vary from 2 mm to 20 mm, making the system able to control a wide range of processes with less than 1% precision.

The proposed system can also be used for other processes where systems currently available on the market cannot be applied, as in the gas turbine application proposed.

Main expected benefits are productivity gains up to 30% with consequential increase of product's quality, lowering in energy consumption, et. and thus process costs. Specifically for gas turbine application, the availability of the generator will be increased by 20 % since the turbines will not be stopped for maintenance.

Call for proposal

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Coordinator

Alcatel Espace SA
EU contribution
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Address
26 avenue J F Champollion
31037 Toulouse
France

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Total cost
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Participants (6)