Electromagnetic sensor for close gap detection Between two contiguous slabs

The slabs in the steel plants are rolled for producing thinner gauge plates. When these slabs are charged on the roll table for pre-heating and rolling in the mill for gauge reduction they move very close to each other. The movement of slabs is in a contiguous manner on the roll table virtually touching and pushing each other. Therefore, it becomes very difficult to detect or distinguish the slabs on the roll table before their further processing in the mill. This paper describes the application of electromagnetic principle to detect the gaps between contiguous slabs on the roll table. As no such sensor was readily available therefore it was developed and tested. This sensor shall help in identifying the slabs moving contiguously on the roll table. On identification of the gaps between the slabs the sensor output can be interfaced to any system in the mill which takes care of the material tracking of the processed slabs.