Area:
Process industry

Topics:
Ionising radiation applications, non-ionising radiation applications

Security:
Copy of a valid photo identification card or document, no photo or video equipment (including mobile phone) allowed

Transport:
Bus leaves 12.15 hrs and returns approx. 17.45 hrs

Nota Bene:
Wednesday morning refresher courses (three sessions) may be attended

Lunch:
Lunch boxes offered by the IRPA 2018 organisation

Schematic program:

• Reception/Security Coffee/Tea – Congress Center Dudokhuis
• Tata Steel introduction by IJmuiden Visits
• Refresher course: Tata Steel ionising radiation applications by: Martin Lips
• Refresher course: Tata Steel non-ionising radiation applications by: Peter Vooijs
• Coffee/Tea pause
• Bus tour Tata Steel premises
• Dependent on production circumstances visit to Direct Sheet Plant (DSP), Hot Rolling Mill 2 (HRM2) and/or Coated Products (CPR)

Information:

Tata Steel applies various X-ray and/or radioactive sealed sources for process control (e.g. steel thickness or coating thickness measurements). Next to this strong electro-magnetic fields may exist near e.g. induction furnaces. With a visit to this site the participants may have a view to the application of ionising radiation sources, while protection measures against the hazards of electro-magnetic fields will be elucidated in a presentation.

Some examples of ionising radiation applications are given below:

• The flow rate of molten steel into a continuous casting mould, that produces long strips of steel (called slabs, blooms or billets). The molten steel, fresh from a basic oxygen furnace, is poured in at one end and cools and solidifies as it passes through the mould. The pressure of the molten steel in the mould pushes the steel out of the bottom. A radioactive source monitors the level of steel in the mould and its signal is taken up in the process control system.
• The thickness of a flat strip of steel can be measured by the attenuation of radiation experienced by a beam of high energy ionizing radiation directed perpendicular to the planar surface of the strip. Typically, the plane of the strip is oriented horizontally with the source and detector mounted above and below the strip. The source of radiation to measure a strip of steel is normally an X-ray tube, or a sealed source with an artificial radionuclide, g. ²⁴¹Am (g-rays).

An example of non-ionising radiation application is given below:

• Induction furnaces are used in process lines to heat for example steel strips or to heat a bath of molten zinc. A variable magnetic field of high frequency is created within an inductor (coil). According to the law of induction, any electrical conductor placed in a magnetic field is the site of electromotive forces and, thus, of induced currents known as EDDY currents. These currents dissipate the heat in the same substance where they were created, and thus the heat is generated directly in the metal being heated.