Mars exploration imaging technique spawns steel defect detection

A group of UK companies and institutions with ties to the space industry has developed a technique for detecting defects in cast steel which could improve efficiency in all types of steelmaking. The process, which uses lasers, operates continuously and could help reduce manufacturing costs and the amount of material sent to scrap, the team claims.

The space connection to the process is that it is based on techniques originally developed to analyse features on the surface of Mars.

The developing consortium includes the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), which is part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, along with Tata Steel, MPI, Innovative Small Instruments and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London, who were working as part of the two-year HTP-Control project funded by InnovateUK.

The process, which uses digital image analysis and is non-destructive, operates at temperatures around 800°C, making it suitable for the environment of a steelworks, and detects cracks and defects in hot-cast steel, the type which is produced in rolling-mills for processing into sheets, tubes and bars. Defects can occur at a number of points in the production process, leading to formation of pinholes and cracks that ruin the strength of the material and tend to lead to product rejection and remelting, increasing the steelworks’ energy usage. It could also potentially be used in glassmaking, ceramics, titanium and other metal alloy casting processes.