Article

Furnace insight

16 februar 2024

Idletechs offers a Furnace Monitoring solution that monitors furnaces using thermal imaging and transparent machine learning methods that provides users with continuous temperature measurements and other key information for the most efficient operation. Our solution provides robust continuous temperature measurements by analyzing thermal images in real time and calculating the correct temperature of the melt by using information from the whole image and not only single points that are susceptible to disturbances.

By using thermal imaging instead of manual dip measurements, we remove people from hazardous areas and at the same time provide a full overview of the whole inside of the furnace every single second.

The benefit of using a thermal imaging is that the whole inside of the furnace is being monitored, as every pixel can be seen as an individual temperature measurement. This gives us information about the temperature distribution over the molten surface as well as the refractory walls. By using thermal imaging, temperature measurements will also be more consistent, as variations from manual sampling due to individual differences from operator to operator and different thermocouples are removed.

When combining this with Idletechs’ transparent machine learning, it is possible to build models that provide the user with online information on the state of the process and the condition of the refractory of the furnace. By using our methods, we are able to find information in the data that are not visible to the naked eye by only looking at the raw thermal images.