From 28th February till 02nd March, KELLER ITS participated as exhibitor at the IFEX 2020 in India. The meanwhile 16th edition of the fair for foundry technology took place this year in Chennai. With totally six halls, IFEX is the largest exhibition in India and trendsetter in the field of iron and steel production. Again, an attractive lecture program accompanied the fair on current developments with the main topic of digitalization in foundries.

KELLER ITS presented the newly developed pyrometer CellaCast with IO-Link interface for the optical temperature measurement of liquid metals at the booth. Gone are the days when only the analogue measuring signal was evaluated. In 2007, a consortium of PLC manufacturers and fieldbus providers joined and created a worldwide standard with the IO-Link interface technology. This step became necessary because the increase of data to be transmitted also requires a higher transmission speed. IO-Link is characterised by the simplest installation and the very high operational reliability. Devices with IO-Link can be integrated into all common fieldbuses.

With the new CellaCast pyrometer, not only the temperature value of the liquid metal, but also signals and data for monitoring the contamination of the optics, diagnostic data of the measuring system and the internal temperature are transmitted to the PLC via the digital interface. Furthermore, IO-Link offers the possibility of configuring the device via the PLC. This allows the individually adjustment of the measurement parameters during the production depending on the production batch according to the alloy of the melt.

With the new KITS App, also presented for the first time, KELLER offers a solution for the digitalisation of the service. The App provides online all information required for commissioning, configuration and maintenance of the measuring system. With the integrated emissivity calculator and field-of-view calculator, the required setting parameters for commissioning are determined on site. For personal technical support, the direct contact details of the service department are available.

With more than 100 visitors at our stand, the exhibition was a great success for KELLER ITS India. Thus, we have already decided to participate in the IFEX 2021 in Calcutta.

The implementation of integrated networking and communication from the machine level to the ERP software is a high challenge for automation technology in machine and plant construction as well as for the manufacturers of sensors and actuators in this extremely rapidly developing technology, in order to be able to follow the state of the art and the innovative machine concepts. In order to be able to manage the large amount of new process data of the "smart" sensors, a new interface technology with higher transmission rates had to be created.

In this context, the world’s leading manufacturers of control and fieldbus systems joined forces 2007 years ago to create a uniform, system and company independent new standard. The result was the invention of the IO-Link interface technology. Sensors and actuators with IO-Link communication interface can be operated in all common fieldbuses such as Profibus, Profinet, Modbus, EtherCAT or CAN-bus and thereby solve one of the still largest problems of bus specific device interfaces.

When specifying the IO-Link interface in accordance with IEC 61131-9, particular emphasis was placed on standardization, operational safety and simple hardware and software commissioning and cabling of the intelligent and complex sensors and actuators. Therefore, IO-Link is rightly called the industry's USB interface for controlling machinery and equipment. It was also important that the IO devices could also be easily implemented in existing systems.

Several measured values, diagnostic information for demand-oriented maintenance, information on operating states or fault messages can be transmitted in parallel via IO-Link. Parameterization takes place flexibly during operation via the control system, depending on the production conditions.

The central parameterization of the devices from the highest level of process control contributes to operational safety. When changing a sensor, the identification is automatically checked and the configuration parameters stored in the IO-Link master are transferred to the sensor. The connection of a wrong device or a faulty configuration is therefore excluded.

To follow this technological progress, KELLER ITS - one of the leading companies in the field of optical temperature measurement - has developed the new instrument series CellaTemp® PX. The focusable precision pyrometers are the first instruments of their kind worldwide to be equipped with the revolutionary IO-Link interface technology.

Altogether, the new CellaTemp® PX series has 22 basic models with measuring ranges from 0 – 3000 °C. In combination with the 5 focusable lenses, the more than 100 device versions can be used for various measuring distances and object sizes. You can choose between a through-the-lens sighting device, a laser pilot light or an HD video camera. The variety of variants covers the complete application ranges of optical temperature measurement from the iron and steel industry, the cement, glass or ceramic industry to combustion plants.

In order to be able to use the devices in existing process control systems with analogue signal transmission, the devices of the CellaTemp® PX series have the classic 0(4) – 20 mA analogue output as well as two switching outputs in parallel.

Modern information and communication technology offers innovative solutions for providing information and data regardless of the location far beyond the current practice. Digitalization thus opens interesting fields of action for companies, especially in terms of service.

KELLER ITS – one of the leading manufacturers of optical temperature measuring devices – follows this development and presents the new information and service app “KITS”. The App implements the different possibilities of a modern digital service concept.

The Industrial Solution Guide in KITS helps prospective customers in selecting the most suitable device and accessories for their industry and application. All information available on a product, such as technical data, operating and commissioning instructions or dimensional drawings are directly available on site via the app on the smartphone or tablet. For this purpose, you simply scan the barcode or enter the type of instrument. For the electrical connection, the setup of the measuring system or in case of any malfunctions it is no longer necessary to search for the documents.

The field-of-view calculator is a useful tool for selecting the optical property of the instrument as well as for setting the appropriate focus distance of the pyrometer during commissioning. The emissivity calculator is an important tool for setting the parameter of the device to find the correct emissivity setting. In addition, you are able to determine the real measurement uncertainty under the given measurement conditions.

For quick help, our service hotline is directly available. The KITS App currently supports 8 languages and meets the requirements for a modern service management to get all necessary information quickly, easily, at any time and worldwide.

Optical temperature measurement has meanwhile established itself in many applications. Within milliseconds, a pyrometer detects the infrared or thermal radiation emitted by the measuring object and calculates the temperature based on the Planck distribution curve. The optical measuring method allows a temperature measurement from a safe distance, on moving objects or on sensitive surfaces such as paint layers or liquids. Even temperatures above 2,000 °C or inaccessible objects such as encapsulated kilns are typical applications for optical temperature measurement.

At the infrared temperature measurement, the emissivity of the measured object has a great influence on the accuracy of the measurement. The emissivity is a material property and a measure of the ability to radiate heat. The value is specified as a ratio to the radiation of an ideal "black" radiator with a range of 0 to 100 %.

The emissivity depends on the measuring object, the surface condition, the wavelength of the radiation and on the ambient conditions. In the literature, you only find approximate, theoretical values. For precise determination of emissivity, a comparative measurement with a contact thermometer is recommended. However, the contact measurement can also be faulty and a comparison measurement at the same time and place is often not possible to realise in practice. Then it is helpful if at least the error about the maximum possible measurement deviation can be estimated.

For this purpose, KELLER Infrared Temperature Solutions (ITS) – one of the leading manufacturers of optical temperature measurement devices – has developed an emissivity calculator. This calculator is available as online tool on www.keller.de/its and for mobile devices via the “KITS” App. If the real object temperature is known, the emissivity to be set for the selected pyrometer can be determined by the calculator. A second calculation method determines the influence and the deviation of the measured temperature by varying the possible emissivity.

Today’s demands on the mechanical, forming and machining properties of foundry products have increased significantly in recent years. This is due both to the complexity of the components and to the objective of saving material and weight. In addition, the market is being flooded by low-cost suppliers. Efficient production in the foundry sector only possible by focusing and specializing on high-quality products.
This, however, requires that demands on quality are defined, checked and adhered to from the raw material through to the entire production process. Especially the prescribed temperature of the liquid metal when pouring into the mould must be ensured.

The optical temperature measuring method with pyrometers has meanwhile established itself in steel mills and foundries. For this purpose, KELLER Infrared Temperature Solutions - who is one of the innovative leading companies in the field of optical temperature measurement -has developed a unique measuring method with the CellaCast measuring system. By means of a CSD (Clean Surface Detection) function and a rectangular measuring field, the pyrometers are able to filter the correct temperature of the liquid steel and iron even with slag and oxide on top of the surface.

The measuring system is used to monitor continuously the temperature in the runner of blast furnaces or cupola furnaces. At automatic casting machines, the temperature of each production part is detected and recorded at the critical process point, i.e. when filling the mould. Faulty production parts can be sorted out directly or the casting process can be stopped immediately when reaching the minimum permissible limit temperature.

The CellaCast System can be integrated into the plant control system or can be used as stand-alone solution to display the measured values with the number and analysis of the production parts on a PC and save them automatically in a database.

As a novelty, KELLER ITS presents the CellaCast PX measuring system with the cutting-edge IO-Link interface technology. When specifying the IO-Link interface in accordance with IEC 61131-9, particular emphasis was placed on standardization, operational safety and simple hardware and software commissioning and cabling. Therefore, IO-Link is rightly called the industry's USB interface for controlling machinery and equipment. Several measured values, diagnostic information for demand-oriented maintenance, information on operating states or fault messages can be transmitted in parallel via the digital interface. It is also possible to dynamically adapt the device parameters with the PLC to the material during operation via the interface.