Tata Steel Uses KEYENCE Sensors for High-Accuracy Dimensional Inspections of its Rails

Tata Steel Rail France takes great care in inspecting the straightness of the ends of its rails so that its customers receive the straightest possible rails. As a result, it has recently retrofitted its end straightness inspection systems with KEYENCE’s latest generation of CCD laser displacement sensors, the LK-G3000. During rail inspection, a carriage moves along the end of a rail at a rate of 3 meters per second and over a distance of 3.2 m. The carriage is equipped with two LK-G displacement sensors that profiles the rails surface at a rate of 10,000 samples per second. If the rail is not straight, it is transferred to a press to be straightened to the desired tolerance. Measurements are extremely fast and the accuracy achieved is in the order of a few hundredths of a millimeter.

“We’ve been working with KEYENCE for many years. We looked around for an alternative supplier, but none of the systems we saw suited us,” says Michel André, automated systems manager at Tata Steel Rail France in Hayange, France.

“轨道表面是最复杂的测量中，并且已知干扰测量，”IT官员埃里克佩鲁齐说。“他们有光泽，可以用锈蚀，这是沉闷的。结果，传感器倾向于送回太多不正确的测量，从而无法检查直线度。“

“我们设计了一种计算机化的测量档案和再处理系统，使我们能够准确估计可重复性。凭借关键，我们达到了令人满意的正确测量速度，这符合竞争优惠。“

关键’s integration support was also a deciding factor: “This type of system is always hard to implement in conditions such as ours. KEYENCE was the only company able to quickly provide us with technical solutions to our problems.”

实际上，塔塔钢需要激光传感器，可以满足许多高要求的激光传感器：能够将自己调整为闪亮和沉闷的轨道表面，以非常快速地进行测量以跟上快速的生产率并承受苛刻的操作条件。