To have a better understanding of the onset and the evolution of the degradation of the work roll surface during a rolling campaign, CRM has developed a work roll surface inspection system, based on a CCD camera. The inspection system consists of two major parts: a sensing head (300x500x75mm) located in the stand in front of the work roll, containing a stroboscopic light source, a CCD camera and a lens with a motorised focus adjustment, and an acquisition and control cabinet installed in the gauges control room. The principle of the inspection system is to illuminate the roll surface by means of stroboscopic light source and simultaneously acquire a CCD image. The work roll surface is monitored during rolling on an area of 6mm x 8mm.
To control the system a special acquisition programme has been developed in C language (working under Windows NT). This programme gives to the operator the possibility to select the acquisition rate and to tune the quality of the image. It is also possible to correct the image by changing its contrast and brightness by software. External synchronisation signals were added to the acquisition unit (e.g. rolling speed, work roll position and presence of the strip). With these additional signals, it is possible to synchronise the acquisition of the CCD images with the rolling sequence and to monitor a specific spot of the work roll surface.
The acquired image is presented on the screen of an industrial computer. The CCD images can be stored on the hard disk at regular time intervals or at specific moments of the rolling sequence (one image after each strip) to analyse the work roll deterioration. This gives the possibility to investigate the evolution of the work roll surface deterioration in relationship with the number of rolled strips and the processing parameters.