Optical surface inspecting system for inspecting the surface of a rolling roll having mechanism for keeping clean a window through which a camera detects a condition of the rolling roll

An optical inspecting system for inspecting a surface of a rolling roll being sprayed with water or coated with residual cooling water, comprising:

• a housing box;
• a window mounted on the housing box;
• a light source, mounted in the housing box, for irradiating light onto the rolling roll;
• a camera, mounted in the housing box, for collecting images of the rolling roll, irradiated by the light source, through the window;
• and
• water removing means, mounted to the housing box, for blowing air from at least two different directions to keep the water from the rolling roll off of the window.

An optical inspecting system for inspecting a surface of a rolling roll being sprayed with water or coated with residual cooling water, comprising:

• a housing box;
• a window mounted on the housing box;
• a light source, mounted in the housing box, for irradiating light onto the rolling roll;
• a camera, mounted in the housing box, for collecting images of the rolling roll, irradiated by the light source, through the window;
• a water column forming nozzle, mounted to the housing box nd connected to a pressurized water source, having a neck and water ejection orifice, a diameter of the water ejection orifice being smaller than a diameter of the neck, the water column forming nozzle spraying a water column into the roll, the camera collecting images of the rolling roll through the water column.

An optical surface inspecting system for inspecting the surface of a rolling roll, comprising:

• a housing box capable of moving along the longitudinal axis of a rotating rolling roll being sprayed with cooling water or coated with residual cooling water, provided with a window and a water droplet removing mechanism for removing droplets of cooling water adhering to the surface of the window;
• a stroboscopic illuminating device contained in the housing box to illuminate the surface of the rolling roll through the window;
• a television camera contained in the housing box to pick up an image of the surface of the rolling roll in synchronism with the illuminating operation of the stroboscopic illuminating device and for providing a still video signal representing the image of the surface of the rolling roll;
• an image storage device for storing the still video signal provided by the television camera;
• an image display for displaying a picture corresponding to the still video signal stored in the image storage device;
• and
• a controller which synchronizes the illuminating operation of the stroboscopic illuminating device with a vertical synchronizing signal for the television camera, stores the still video signal provided by the television camera in the image storage device, and reads the still video signal from the image storage device and applies the same to the image display;
• wherein said water droplet removing mechanism comprises a water column forming nozzle made of a transparent material, the water column forming nozzle having a spout attached to a front wall provided with the window of said housing box and for forming a water column between the window and the surface of the rolling roll when pressurized water is supplied into the water column forming nozzle.