An apparatus for controlling coating weight coated on a strip by using an air knife disposed in a travelling direction of the strip in a continuous plating process in which the strip is dipped in a molten metal pot and is coated includes: a prediction model unit including a prediction model in which a neural network is trained with accumulated operation conditions; and an optimum air knife condition calculation unit configured to derive an absolute value of at least one of an air knife gap and an air knife pressure by using the prediction model based on an input operation condition.

An embodiment of a system includes a compartment-generating device, a compartment detector, and electronic computing circuitry. The device is configured to generate compartments of a digital assay, at least one of the compartments having a respective volume that is different from a respective volume of each of at least another one of the compartments. The detector is configured to determine a number of the compartments each having a respective number of a target that is greater than a threshold number of the target. And the electronic circuitry is configured to determine a bulk concentration of the target in a source of the sample in response to the determined number of compartments. Because such a system can be configured to estimate a bulk concentration of a target in a source from a polydisperse digital assay, the system can be portable, and lower-cost and faster, than conventional systems.

A method for monitoring a manufacturing of a metal product, the metal product being manufactured according to a manufacturing process, is implemented by an electronic monitoring device. This method includes acquiring (100) a measured value of at least one representative parameter, each representative parameter being a parameter relating to the metal product or a parameter relating to the manufacturing process, determining (130) a status of the metal product among a compliant status and an analysis status, depending on the at least one acquired value and on at least one target, and when the determined status is the analysis status, computing (150) a corrective action to be applied to the product, among a set of corrective actions and depending on the at least one acquired value, the set of corrective actions including a product repair, a product downgrading, a product expertise and a product acceptance.

The invention relates to a device for processing a metal strip (200) after said metal strip has exited a coating tank (300) having liquid coating material (310). Above the coating tank, the device has a blow-off apparatus (110) having an air outlet slot (112) for blowing liquid parts of the coating off of the metal strip. Arranged above the blow-off apparatus (110) is an electromagnetic stabilization apparatus (140) for stabilizing the metal strip by means of electromagnetic forces after the exiting of the coating tank and the blow-off apparatus. According to the invention, in order to design known devices for treating a metal strip to be more favorable in respect of energy and in order to increase the accessibility of said devices for an operating person, the stabilization apparatus (140) is arranged above the blow-off apparatus (110) in such a way that the distance d between the line of action of the maximum force of the stabilization apparatus on the metal strip and on the air outlet gap (112) of the blow-off apparatus (110) is limited to a range of 100-1200 mm.

A hot-dip plating apparatus for plating a thin molten solder film can control a film thickness of a molten solder on a base material evenly and in increments of a few m and achieve a thin-film solder plating having a film thickness less than a conventional system. As shown in FIG. 1, this apparatus comprises a solder bath 17 of accommodating the molten solder 7; a second conveying section 23 for drawing up a strip member 31 from the solder bath; and a blower section 19 for blowing hot gas on the strip member 31 immediately after being drawn up from the solder bath by a second conveying section 23; the hot gas having a predetermined flow volume and a predetermined temperature equal to or higher than a melting temperature of the molten solder 7. According to this configuration, the excess molten solder 7 can be trimmed from the strip member 31 corresponding to composition of the molten solder 7. Thus, the film thickness of the molten solder 7 coated on the strip member 31 can be controlled evenly and in increments of a few m.

The invention relates to a method for high-temperature galvanization of ferrous material parts (10). The method comprises the production of zinc melt (12). The method further comprises saturating the iron concentration of the zinc melt (12) so that it is iron-saturated. In addition, the method comprises producing an undersaturation of the iron concentration of the zinc melt (12) so that it is iron-undersaturated. The method further comprises dipping the ferrous material parts (10) in iron-undersaturated zinc melt (12), whereby a galvanization layer (14) is formed on the ferrous material parts (10).

The present invention is provided with: a duct of which one end interconnects to a wiping nozzle (22, 23) and the other end is open; a first valve (17) that controls the actual gas pressure (P1) of the wiping nozzle (22, 23); a second valve (18) that controls the gas flow rate (Q2) dissipating to outside the system from another branched duct; a wiping pressure setting unit (11) that sets the set gas pressure (P1) of the wiping nozzle (22, 23); a first valve aperture setter (13) that sets the valve aperture of the first valve (17); a second valve aperture setter (14) that sets the valve aperture of the second valve (18); and a computation processing unit (12) that presents to the first valve aperture setter (13) the valve aperture at which the gas pressure (P1) matches a set gas pressure (P1), and presents to the second valve aperture setter (14) the valve aperture at which the total gas flow rate (QT) supplied from a gas supply device (15) becomes uniform.

An apparatus for controlling coating weight of a steel sheet by using an air knife includes: an air knife condition derivation unit configured to derive a first air knife gap and a final air knife pressure for target coating weight, and derive a second air knife gap for achieving the target coating weight at a current air knife pressure; and an air knife gap compensation unit configured to determine a final air knife gap according to a gap compensation amount that is a difference between the second air knife gap and the first air knife gap and a gap compensation ratio based on an air knife pressure variation amount for a control period, in which the control period is a period for updating an air knife condition for the target coating weight.

A device for coating a metal strip with a liquid coating material comprises a coating container filled with, for example, liquid zinc. After the metal strip exits the coating container, liquid coating material adheres to the metal strip. Excess coating material is blown away from the surface of the metal strip by a blowing device. Thereafter, the metal strip runs through an electromagnetic stabilization device which is supported on the blowing device. Disturbing influences may cause the metal strip to no longer run centrally through a slot of the blowing device. A displacement or re-alignment of the blowing device is then required to guide the metal strip back to the set middle position. A first displacing device displaces the electromagnetic stabilization device relative to the blowing device in the plane transverse to the direction of transport of the metal strip to avoid an undesirable displacement of the electromagnetic stabilization device.

Provided is a method of controlling coating weight coated on a strip by using an air knife disposed in a travelling direction of the strip in a continuous plating process in which the strip is dipped in a molten metal pot and is coated. The method includes: training a neural network with accumulated operation conditions; and deriving an absolute value of at least one of an air knife gap and an air knife pressure by using the trained neural network based on an input operation condition.