Method for measuring wear in the refractory lining of a metallurgical melting vessel

Method for measuring the refractory lining of a metallurgical melting vessel, by means of a laser scanner which comprises a laser head for emitting laser beams which is deflected in vertical and horizontal directions;

• and with a receiving means in the vicinity of the laser head for receiving the laser beams reflected from the refractory lining to determine their directions and time of flight;
• wherein in a step prior to the actual measuring of the refractory lining an initial reference position and heading of the laser scanner in relation to the coordinate system of a converter tilt axis has been established by previously installed and defined permanent marks;
• characterized in
• (a) that the steel production process within the converter is terminated;
• (b) that the converter is tilted for scanning into a position whereby the opening of the converter is facing the laser scanner;
• (c) that a first scanning of the refractory lining is carried out with the laser scanner in its initial reference position and heading in front of the opening of the converter, while simultaneously scanning two or more temporary marks, said temporary marks either being positioned in front of the converter prior to terminating the steel production process or they are represented by incidental structures on or within the converter;
• (d) that the position of the two or more temporary marks in relationship to the coordinate system of the laser scanner is determined so that the position of the temporary marks can be calculated in the coordinate system of the converter tilt axis;
• (e) that thereafter the laser scanner is moved to one or more new positions in front of the converter which are not defined at that moment;
• (f) thereafter a scan of the refractory lining is performed with the laser scanner positioned in front of the opening of the converter and simultaneously scanning the temporary marks and simultaneously determining the positions of the temporary marks within the coordinate system of the laser scanner so that from the previously calculated position of the temporary marks in relation to the coordinate system of the converter tilt axis the new position and heading of the laser scanner relative to the coordinate system of the converter tilt axis can be calculated;
• and
• (g) that thereafter, optionally, the converter can be tilted into one or more additional positions and steps are repeated;
• and finally
• (h) that from the point data generated by the laser beam scans, the converter tilt angles and the laser scanner positions, the internal contour of the refractory lining of the steel converter can be derived.