Development of Gap Measuring System Between Strip and Air Knife in Continuous Galvanizing Line

In continuous galvanizing process at steel making plant, coating weight on the surface of strip that pass through air knife is controlled by the pressure at the chamber of air knife and the gap between the nozzle of air knife and strip. The pressure can be easily measured and controlled. But it is difficult to measure the distance between Air knife nozzle and strip, and also difficult to decide how much distance air knife move. Because, the gap between nozzle and strip varies with the height of air knife, intermesh of stabilizing roll and welding of strips that have different thickness. In this research, we developed a gap sensor that can measure the relative distance between Air knife nozzle and strip. And several tests are performed to find optimal condition for application at real plant. We performed test in which the possibility of the sensor to apply ...