A cooler for a cooling clinker of a cement production plant includes an aeration grate for conveying the clinker in a conveying direction, a ventilator for generating a cooling air flow that passes the aeration grate as a cross flow, and a measuring plane disposed above the aeration grate. The measuring plane includes a temperature measuring installation for ascertaining a temperature distribution in the measuring plane. The cooler includes an open-loop or closed-loop control installation to control a conveying rate of the clinker and/or a flow rate of the cooling air flow as a function of the ascertained temperature distribution. Further, a corresponding method can be utilized to operate a cooler for cooling clinker.

A reflow soldering oven for soldering and/or bonding component leads both electrically and mechanically to pads on a PCB in an SMT manufacturing system. The soldering oven includes at least one thermal infrared camera that generates thermal images of the PCB to provide thermal imaging processing to monitor and correct temperature deviations in real time. The oven generates a heat map using the thermal images and compares the heat map to a thermal gradient to provide real time profiling and to initiate changes like temperature control or the oven belt-speed monitoring to offer self-correcting capabilities.

A method for heat treatment, a heat treatment apparatus, and a heat treatment system that is capable of performing highly precise and efficient control of heat treatment. A heat treatment furnace has in-furnace structures made of graphite and has a heat-treatment chamber in which heat treatment of materials to be treated is performed. A value of G.sup.0 (standard formation Gibbs energy) is computed with reference to the sensor information from respective sensors, and an Ellingham diagram, a control range, and a status of the heat treatment furnace in operation expressed by G.sup.0 are displayed on a display device. A control unit controls a flow rate of neutral gas or inactive gas as atmosphere gas or a flow velocity of the gas so that G.sup.0 is within the control range.

An apparatus for monitoring an apparatus for the inductive heating of a metal material including a detection device and an evaluation device. In order to automate the loading of the inductive heating apparatus with bulk material or metal material, according to the invention the detection device is an optical sensor for detecting distance and the evaluation device is designed to determine, on the basis of the distance detected by the detection device, the fill level of the inductive heating apparatus and to output a corresponding signal, the signal being suitable for further use in a control process for the feeding of metal material to the inductive heating apparatus. The invention also relates to a method for automatically loading an apparatus for the inductive heating of a metal material and to a control system for an apparatus for the inductive heating of a metal material.