The Crop Shear is an extremely vital process in both Hot Strip and Plate Mills. Located after the last roughing mill stand, the Crop Shear is responsible for cropping/shearing the front end of the bar/strip squarely to avoid cobbles and steering issues in the finishing mill. If the front end is not square, cobbles and steering issues can cause significant downtime, damaged equipment, and loss of material. The tail end of the bar also has to be cropped squarely for similar issues at the next process (i.e. Cold Mill).

With today’s competitive global market, it is critical for steel manufacturers to maximize the yield of the Crop Shear while ensuring no process issues (cobbles and steering issues). The optimal cut line must be identified to ensure squareness with the least amount of material (bar) being scrapped when cropped. One to Two inches of “each bar” unnecessarily scrapped is a significant financial loss to the steel manufacturer over time.

In response, steel manufacturers have implemented Vision Based Crop Optimization Systems to identify the optimal cut line. Cameras are used to image the head and tail of the bar/strip while it is rolling down the line. Crop Optimization Software uses the images, along with mill inputs to generate the optimum position for shearing the head or tail of the bar. This information then is provided to the Shear Control System that operates the shear. Crop Optimization Systems provide high production steel mills significant yield savings.

GGC’s Vision System uses state-of-the-art line scan cameras to create accurate 2-D images of the bar. Not only can the images be used with GGC Crop Optimization Software to identify the optimum cut line, it also can be configured to:

– Generate Views of Physical and Thermal Gradients
– Calculate operational parameters such as Deviation from Center, Overall Width, Camber, and Hook
– Alarm in case of excessive conditions, such as excessive hook

GGC also has developed a modern, PLC based Shear Control System that can replace many obsolete systems. In most cases, all of the existing digital and analog I/O can be reused. When combined with GGC’s Vision System and Crop Optimization Software, our customers have seen a significant increase in yield in a very short time.

Global Gauge can provide the engineering, fabrication, installation, and service. With our partners in Europe and Asia, Global Gauge has a worldwide reach. Please visit Global Gauge’s website to learn more about our Vision, Crop Optimization, Shear Control and other measurement systems.