A method of controlling a production process includes illuminating a portion of a workpiece undergoing a production process with a light having a selected wavelength, processing a portion of the workpiece, capturing a digital image of the light reflecting from a surface of the workpiece with a digital camera, performing, with a processor, a specular reflectance analysis of the digital image, and adjusting a production process parameter based on the specular reflectance analysis.

A furnace monitoring device includes an imaging unit to capture an image of combustion ash adhering to a monitoring position in a furnace, an evaluation unit to evaluate a deposition state of combustion ash on the basis of a monitoring image which is output from the imaging unit, and an alert unit to output an alert for the combustion ash on the basis of a result of evaluation from the evaluation unit.

A furnace monitoring device includes an imaging unit to capture an image of combustion ash adhering to a monitoring position in a furnace, an evaluation unit to evaluate a deposition state of combustion ash on the basis of a monitoring image which is output from the imaging unit, and an alert unit to output an alert for the combustion ash on the basis of a result of evaluation from the evaluation unit.

An installation for recycling contaminated scrap metal includes a furnace frame and a melting furnace arranged within the furnace frame and configured to tilt, and a hood-like housing. The melting furnace includes an upper melting furnace opening and a casting device configured to cast a metal melt produced in the melting furnace into a pan. The hood-like housing is positioned on a top of the melting furnace and surrounds and covers the upper melting furnace opening. The hood-like housing includes at least one door, and a flue gas removal system coupled to the hood-like housing in a gas-tight manner and configured to tilt along with the melting furnace.

An abnormality detection method of detecting abnormality of a blast furnace from tuyere images shot by cameras installed in vicinities of a plurality of tuyeres of the blast furnace includes: collecting, in a time-series manner, representative brightness vectors defined by representative brightnesses determined based on brightness values of respective pixels for each of the tuyeres image previously shot by the cameras at a same time; extracting a principal component vector by performing principal component analysis on the representative brightness vectors collected in the time-series manner; calculating, as an evaluation value, a length of a normal line drawn in a direction of the principal component vector from the representative brightness vector collected from the tuyere images shot by the cameras at the same time during an operation; and detecting the abnormality of the blast furnace by comparing the evaluation value with a predetermined threshold.

An abnormality detection method of detecting abnormality of a blast furnace from tuyere images shot by cameras installed in vicinities of a plurality of tuyeres of the blast furnace includes: collecting, in a time-series manner, representative brightness vectors defined by representative brightnesses determined based on brightness values of respective pixels for each of the tuyeres image previously shot by the cameras at a same time; extracting a principal component vector by performing principal component analysis on the representative brightness vectors collected in the time-series manner; calculating, as an evaluation value, a length of a normal line drawn in a direction of the principal component vector from the representative brightness vector collected from the tuyere images shot by the cameras at the same time during an operation; and detecting the abnormality of the blast furnace by comparing the evaluation value with a predetermined threshold.

The invention concerns a dental furnace, with a furnace base and with a furnace hood, wherein the furnace hood includes a firing chamber for the accommodation of dental restorations, with a temperature sensor that records the temperature of the dental restoration and which is connected to a control device which controls the dental furnace, and the dental furnace (10) includes a drive unit (18) for the furnace hood (16) and the control device (30) controls the drive unit (18) based on the temperature recorded by the temperature sensor (20), namely opens the furnace hood.

The invention concerns a dental furnace, with a furnace base and with a furnace hood, wherein the furnace hood includes a firing chamber for the accommodation of dental restorations, with a temperature sensor that records the temperature of the dental restoration and which is connected to a control device which controls the dental furnace, and the dental furnace (10) includes a drive unit (18) for the furnace hood (16) and the control device (30) controls the drive unit (18) based on the temperature recorded by the temperature sensor (20), namely opens the furnace hood.

The invention relates to a dental furnace, in particular a firing furnace or press furnace, for firing or pressing a dental restoration part which is receivable in the furnace, possibly after pre-heating in a pre-heating furnace, and which is placeable on a base, in particular centrally thereon, wherein the dental furnace comprises a firing chamber whose diameter is larger than, in particular at least twice as large as, the largest dental restoration part to be fired, and which comprises a control device and an operating unit at the or for the dental furnace (10), wherein by means of the operating unit (26) the size and/or the weight and/or the number of the dental restoration part(s) (18) to be fired or pressed is adjustable in units.

The invention relates to a dental furnace, in particular a firing furnace or press furnace, for firing or pressing a dental restoration part which is receivable in the furnace, possibly after pre-heating in a pre-heating furnace, and which is placeable on a base, in particular centrally thereon, wherein the dental furnace comprises a firing chamber whose diameter is larger than, in particular at least twice as large as, the largest dental restoration part to be fired, and which comprises a control device and an operating unit at the or for the dental furnace (10), wherein by means of the operating unit (26) the size and/or the weight and/or the number of the dental restoration part(s) (18) to be fired or pressed is adjustable in units.