Aluminum coil is widely used in many industries. Rapid defect detection is important during coiling, as is complete coil visibility, which eliminates the need to manually unwind coils for inspection.
Aluminum is a common material for computer to plate (CTP) press applications. Since many reproductions may be made from each plate, a defect-free surface is essential.
Color coating lines are long and involve several stages from cleaning and treating to coating and hardening. Automated inspection systems are essential to ensuring high surface quality of the final product.
A clean, grease-free litho plate is essential to plate preparation in lithography. AMETEK Surface Vision’s inspection solutions can spot even small imperfections, enhancing surface quality for accurate printing.
After or between cold rolling operations coils are passed through an annealing line to relieve stresses. It's important that defects are not introduced at this stage, requiring accurate and reliable inspection.
High-speed rolling mills need a reliable, verifiable automated surface inspection system to ensure defects are not introduced throughout the process. AMETEK Surface Vision products reduce waste product.
Thin foil requires further cold rolling to reach the desired thickness and surface quality. They are more prone to surface damage than thicker metals, and so reliable quality monitoring is essential to the process.
The surface quality of lithographic plates is central to ensuring accurate print reproduction. A system with AMETEK Surface Vision’s expert classification can distinguish between lithographic marks and surface defects.
Slitting coils can leave them prone to edge damage. AMETEK Surface Vision provides an advanced edge monitoring system, while also inspecting both sides of the slit metal strip.
Tension leveling lines are used to remove flatness defects by stretching and bending the aluminium strip. Surface defects may be introduced which can affect the success of this process, so monitoring is important.
Any cutting of metal sheets has the potential to damage the edges. To detect any flaws created by cutting, accurate inspection of the entire surface, including the edges, is required.
Edge trimming is required to remove edge impurities and defects from the edge of the metal strip and to cut coils to the finished width. AMETEK Surface Vision’s system monitors the metal edge to ensure it is free of defects .
As the metal is trimmed to size, it may experience surface or edge damage. Automated monitoring will detect and classify this damage without affecting line speeds.
Hot rolling is a critical step in ensuring aluminum sheet is high quality. During hot rolling stages from the breakdown of the slab to plate thickness on to the finishing mill where strip coils are produced
Scalpers remove surface impurities from aluminum ingots. They can also be used on edges to reduce trimming scrap. Accurate surface inspection systems can verify the quality of the scalping process.
Aluminum is often formed into round billets either for machining or for extruding into other products.. These require a smooth surface to ensure a high-quality final product.