Surface inspection of hot rolled seamless tubes

Tubos Reunidos S.A., a seamless hot and cold-rolled pipe manufacturer from Spain, has installed a new quality control and inspection system to detect pipe surface defects in hot conditions. The surface inspection technology include the use of laser technology and three high-speed linear cameras, for illumination of tubes. The inspection equipment is mounted in three enclosures such as camera, redundant system of lasers, security sensors, and power sources. The custom-built surface application perform image acquisition of the three cameras, image processing for automatic defect detection, and database registration of defects. The plant floor monitoring application (MOPLA) at Tubos collects various tube production information. Remote inspection capabilities of the surface inspection system are achieved by a client application software installed on the computer connected to the Tubos Reunidos local area network (LAN).