Measuring thickness of the copper stave in blast furnace using ultrasonic technique in cooling line

The blast furnace is used to smelt iron in the steel industry. Ore and cokes are input and hot air is blown into the chamber of the blast furnace. In the high temperature environment, the wear between the stave and the materials makes the cooling stave thinning by the downward movement of the materials in the blast furnace. The thickness of the cooling stave should be aware in order to prevent leakage of coolant into the furnace chamber and to make actions before the failure. The unique ultrasonic sensor which can approach the cooling stave through the cooling line was developed to measure thickness of the worn cooling stave. The ultrasonic sensor has cylindrical face to contact inner surface of the cooling line in the stave. The ultrasonic sensor is flexibly bendable to pass the bended pipe of inlet and outlet port of the cooling line in the stave.