Faultless Steel Production and Manufacturing Xenia Vourna1; Evangelos Hristoforou1; Athanasios G. Mamalis2; 1NATIONAL TU OF ATHENS, Athens, Greece; 2PC-NAE, DEMOKRITOS NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, Athens, Greece; PAPER: 294/Manufacturing/Keynote (Oral) SCHEDULED: 15:55/Mon./Sao Conrado (50/2nd) ABSTRACT: Faultless steel production and manufacturing (FASTEP) represents a new method and technology for surface and bulk stress distribution monitoring and rehabilitation in steels. The quality of the steel and corresponding products depends on the distribution and level of stresses in its volume and surface, since stress gradient is responsible for steel cracking generation & failure. The existing technology in stress monitoring concerns either surface stress distribution monitoring instruments with unacceptably high uncertainty, or point surface stress sensors, or surface and bulk laboratory techniques not able to operate in industrial environment. Therefore, a method to provide stress tensor distribution monitoring on the surface and in the bulk of steels would be the feedback system to not only monitor stresses but actually to achieve stress rehabilitation. FASTEP solution in achieving stress distribution monitoring in steel production, manufacturing and use, is related to a new method and technology, currently pending for patent, offering stress tensor distribution monitoring on the surface and the bulk of steels, steel welds and products based on them. The achieved uncertainty has been <1% for surface or bulk stress measurements, with speeds as high as 100/s per point of measurement, compared to ~10% uncertainty and speed of 1-10 s per point of the existing state of the art, thus opening a new era in diagnostics & therapeutics in steel industry. Such a technology can be the feedback system for automated stress rehabilitation (annihilation or strengthening) process in steel production and manufacturing, as well as in installed steel structures (end-user applications). |