Benefits & Special Features

Benefits of the Mecana NT System

  • Inspection of the entire billet surface including round corner edges
  • Complete detection and classification of longitudinal and transversal defects
  • Testing temperatures from -10°C up to 500 °C
  • Sorting billets in categories "OK" or "Not OK"
  • Full documentation on billet surface quality
  • Optimization of casting and/or rolling process
  • Open software and scalable hardware
  • Matching process powder and lighting system guarantees the best possible crack indications on the billet surfaces
  • Low heat impact on metallurgical surface structure due to selective grinding
  • Very small loss of material due to selective grinding
  • Process supervision ensures conformity to quality management

Special Features

Billet edge recognition capability
The software and camera system tracks the billet edges and adjusts the relevant parameters to compensate for billet irregularities like straightness, torsional distortion and end irregularities to store and display the crack coordinates in the absolute correct position.


Adaptable Recognition Software
Initial software capabilities can be adapted to user requirements during the whole machine life.


Scalable Hardware
The Hardware is made to be scalable. Faster processing times are reached by adding more computing power without having to invest in new software.


Base Luminosity Detection
Worst case: no powder is applied to the billet -> no cracks can be found -> billet might wrongly be declared as OK. Even on a very smooth surface, some powder particles will always stick to the magnetized billet, leading to the ‘starry sky’ effect, which is detected by the system. If no ‘starry sky’ is detected, no powder was applied to the billet.


Self-Diagnostic capability
All software modules as well as all hardware and communication components constantly monitor the proper working.