Temperature tracking system for sinter material in a rotatory cooler based on infrared thermography

Sintering is an industrial process used in the steel industry to transform fine particles of iron ore into coarse grained iron known as sinter. During the process, iron ore fines are mixed with other products such as coke fines and fired at a temperature below the melting point of the material. A rotatory cooler is later used to reduce the temperature of the resulting sinter. Temperature control is very important in the sintering process, since the chemical reactions that occur in the sintering mixture rely heavily upon the temperature. Temperature also dictates the cooler running speed and the air flow of the fans. This work presents a system to measure the temperature of sinter during cooling based on infrared thermography. The system detects the position of the cooler automatically. It applies image registration techniques to track the temperature in the same zones of the sinter material in different images. This procedure makes it possible to control the temperature decay curve of the sinter.