System and method for determining the thickness of a material in manufacturing vessels

A method for determining a thickness of a refractory material forming part of a manufacturing vessel, wherein an innermost surface of said refractory material of said vessel is partly exposed to a molten material different from said refractory material, said system comprising:

• a. providing a surface profile subsystem comprising a first sensor to collect a first set of data, wherein said first set of data comprises surface roughness data of at least a region of interest of said innermost surface of said refractory material and reference positioning data of both said innermost surface of said refractory material and at least one reference point that can be associated with an outermost surface of said refractory material of said vessel;
• wherein said first sensor further collects a second set of data, and wherein said second set of data comprises reference positioning information from a plurality of registers that can be associated with said at least one reference point that can be associated with said outermost surface of said refractory material, wherein said at least one reference point that can be associated with said outermost surface of said refractory material is located apart from a wall comprising said region of interest of said innermost surface of said refractory material, wherein said first sensor is able to collect at least said first set of data contactless at a distance from said region of interest of said innermost surface of said refractory material and a data processing subsystem comprising a computer-based processor, wherein said computer-based processor comprises a data storage device and an executable computer code configured to process at least said first set of data and said second set of data;
• wherein said computer code properly aligns said first set of data and said second set of data to determine a relative positioning of, and a spacing between, said innermost surface of said refractory material and said outermost surface of said refractory material, wherein said executable computer code comprises at least one customized machine learning algorithm, and wherein said executable computer code, said customized machine learning algorithm, and said data processing subsystem are configured to at least partly estimate a presence and dimensions of one or more gaps within said refractory material of said vessel;
• b. collecting said first set of data, using said first sensor, for mapping said region of interest of said innermost surface of said refractory material of said manufacturing vessel and getting said reference positioning data of said innermost surface and said outermost surface of said refractory material of said vessel;
• c. collecting said second set of data, using said first sensor, for getting said plurality of registers corresponding to said outermost surface of said refractory material of said vessel;
• d. processing said first set of data and said second set of data using said executable computer code to compute said relative positioning of said innermost surface of said refractory material and said outermost surface of said refractory material of said vessel;
• and
• e. calculating said spacing between said innermost surface of said refractory material and said outermost surface of said refractory material of said vessel.