This diagnosis support apparatus is a diagnosis support apparatus of a vacuum degassing tank having an immersion tube that extends downward, the diagnosis support apparatus including a camera that is configured to capture an image of an inner circumferential surface of an immersion tube seen from below at an angle in a state of being disposed outside the inner circumferential surface of the immersion tube in a plan view and acquire the image as data and an image processor that is configured to be connected to the camera and carry out image-processing of the data.

A method is provided for heating a furnace arranged with a heating zone heated with a burner providing a flame extending in a longitudinal direction and fed with a fuel and a primary oxidant, the burner is operated with a mass relationship between the fed fuel and primary oxidant permitting less than 50% of the fed fuel to be combusted using the primary oxidant, and a respective pair of secondary oxidant lances are provided one either side of the furnace pointing into the heating zone, lancing a secondary oxidant into the heating zone downstream of the burner substantially parallel with a cross plane, such that a temperature is measured downstream of the lances and that each of the lance pairs includes an upstream, low-speed first and a downstream, high-speed second lance, wherein the amount of secondary oxidant supplied via the first lance is regulated to achieve a homogenous lateral temperature profile. A related furnace is also provided.

Provided is a method of batching and scheduling for steelmaking production with plant-wide process consideration, including the steps of: establishing a mathematical model for quantitatively describing the decision problem of batching on steelmaking and continuous casting procedures; starting from the production capacity balance between parallel equipment of the same procedure, and material flow convergence between upstream and downstream procedures, establishing a model for the assignment and sequencing of batches on continuous casting equipment and the time dimension; integrating the batching plan and the production scheduling scheme, issuing the batching plan and the production scheduling scheme integrated to all production and manufacturing units at the steelmaking stage. The present invention improves product quality, increases the material yield, resource utilization rate and equipment operation efficiency, realizes load balance on parallel equipment and smooth material linkage between serial equipment, and reduces the material flow transportation jam, downstream equipment waiting time and inventory.

The present invention preferably comprises a system and method for measuring and/or continuously monitoring the temperature and/or height of a molten metal bath in a vessel. Specifically, an ultrasonic transmitter and an ultrasonic receiver are disposed about sides of the vessel and are used to send and receive an ultrasonic signal in order to detect the temperature of the bath. More specifically, the ultrasonic transmitter is configured to send an ultrasonic signal through the vessel, and the ultrasonic receiver is configured to receive that ultrasonic signal after it has traveled through the vessel (comprising the molten metal bath). The ultrasonic receiver provides at least one signal to a processing unit (i.e., control center), which processes the at least one signal to determine the temperature and/or level of the molten metal bath. The invention may further comprise chillers to protect the transmitter and receiver from the heat of the bath.

A slag volume evaluation method for a molten metal surface includes calculating an approximation curve indicating a correspondence between a thickness of slag and a density parameter in advance by measuring thicknesses of a plurality of pieces of the slag which float on a surface of a molten metal in a container and differ from each other in thickness, and calculating a value of the density parameter which is correlated to a density in a pixel region corresponding to the plurality of pieces of the slag in a captured image of a molten metal surface in the container; and calculating a volume of the slag by calculating and integrating the thickness of the slag for each of pixels constituting the captured image obtained by capturing an image of the molten metal surface which is an evaluation target, according to a value of the density parameter of each of the pixels and the approximation curve.

A device for measuring a shape of a wall portion of a coke oven is provided. The device includes a box having a main part defining at least one opening and a closing system movable with respect to the main part between an open position and a closed position, an internal protective screen located within the box and defining at least one scanning window, the scanning window being narrower than the opening along a transverse direction (T) of the box and at least one 3D laser scanner located in the box for scanning the wall portion through the scanning window and through the opening when the closing system is in the open position.

The present invention preferably comprises a system and method for measuring and/or continuously monitoring the temperature and/or height of a molten metal bath in a vessel. Specifically, an ultrasonic transmitter and an ultrasonic receiver are disposed about sides of the vessel and are used to send and receive an ultrasonic signal in order to detect the temperature of the bath. More specifically, the ultrasonic transmitter is configured to send an ultrasonic signal through the vessel, and the ultrasonic receiver is configured to receive that ultrasonic signal after it has travelled through the vessel (comprising the molten metal bath). The ultrasonic receiver provides at least one signal to a processing unit (i.e., control center), which processes the at least one signal to determine the temperature and/or level of the molten metal bath. The invention may further comprise chillers to protect the transmitter and receiver from the heat of the bath.

A method of detecting slag in a molten steel flow includes an image capturing step of sequentially capturing a molten steel flow which is directed from a converter toward a ladle and includes molten steel and slag to acquire a plurality of captured images of the molten steel flow, a histogram creation step of creating a histogram for each captured image, a maximum peak point detection step of detecting a maximum peak point, in which the number of pixels is an absolute maximum value, for each histogram, and a maximum peak point type determination step of determining to which of the slag or the molten steel the maximum peak point of each histogram corresponds.

A converter blowing control method includes: calculating, by heat balance calculation and material balance calculation, an amount of oxygen supplied and an amount of a cooling material or a rising heat material charged to control a temperature and a component concentration of molten steel at end of blowing in a converter to target values; controlling the blowing in the converter based on the calculated amount of oxygen supplied and the calculated amount of a cooling material or a rising heat material charged; estimating a pre-blowing molten iron temperature that is a temperature of molten iron used as a raw material for blowing to be a target of the heat balance calculation, charged into the converter, and is in a state immediately before start of the blowing; and using the estimated pre-blowing molten iron temperature as a charged molten iron temperature in the heat balance calculation.

To clearly observe the inside of a furnace where an object is heated by a burner. The burner includes: a lens; an imaging device; and a multiple pipe structure including: an inner pipe that surrounds the lens; an outer pipe that surrounds the inner pipe, separated from the inner pipe by a lens coolant passage; a gaseous fuel pipe radially outward of the outer pipe and operable to inject gaseous fuel; a combustion-supporting gas pipe radially outward of the outer pipe and operable to inject combustion-supporting gas; and a cooling pipe outermost in the multiple pipe structure that surrounds the gaseous fuel pipe and the combustion-supporting gas pipe.