RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT


ergolines believes that where technological leadership is a critical market discriminator R&D plays a key role in delivering innovative and added value products and solutions.

A strong knowledge of physical phenomena in the optic, electromagnetic, acoustic and cinematic domains coupled with mechanical, electronic, optic and software design skills are the pillars of R&D process that flows through the following steps:

Steps:

  • Feasibility analysis
  • Modelling, including new algorithms developmenti
  • Simulation
  • Mechanic, Hardware and Software prototyping
  • Experimental validation and pre industrialization

The protection of intellectual property, originated by innovative R&D solutions, are protected by means of specific patents.

To boost R&D activities, we collaborate in joint research and innovation across a wide range of partner organizations. Our strong track record – encompassing collaborations with universities, academia, small business and European funded projects – witnesses our ability to seed and nurture innovation within a collaborative environment.

The excellent and proved knowledge of the Research and Development Team in the metallurgic and production processes allows successful, optimal and ergonomical solutions deliveries.

Here under please find two project examples developed by R&D ergolines Section, that turned out to be services offered and granted to customers.


Mould thermal monitoring for billets

The MTM system is a mould temperature monitoring system for billet during the continuous casting process. Thanks to 50 thermocouples installed in the crystallizer it is possible to reconstruct a complete thermal map of all faces of the mould in order to:

  • continuous monitoring of the casting process and to improve the quality of the finished product;
  • calculate thermal stresses and elongation to study the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the mould and assess the proper functioning in service.

The temperature records can also be used for the reconstruction of the heat flux through the mould thanks to sophisticated techniques of Inverse Heat Transfer.

Steel superficial velocity measurement

The “Nail board method” plans to insert a steel rod of appropriate diameter in the melt. Due to the fluid velocity, the height of the free surface upstream and downstream of the sample varies. Keeping the specimen immersed for a certain period of time you can “freeze” the situation and get a “nail”. The technique allows to correlate the height difference to the velocity of the molten metal and to map the surface velocity pattern in large sections, blooms and slabs.

Some references