High strength fasteners and other components for the aerospace industry are fabricated from high purity metal stock originally cast in a vacuum arc melt process, followed by one or more vacuum arc re-melting (VAR) purification steps. The VAR process is a continuous melt vacuum process which removes elemental impurities, voids and other defects, and refines the grain structure of the final metal alloy. The electric current required to melt a raw metal billet in the VAR process varies according to the cross section of the billet being fed into the furnace, which can vary considerably along the length of the feedstock billet. Better process control over the melt current can be obtained if the diameter of each individual feedstock billet is mapped along its’ length, and the melt current is varied according to the feedstock billet diameter being fed into the furnace at any given moment. We wish to design and build an non-contact diameter measurement system to provide this information in line for each feedstock billet being processed.

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Project Name

VAR Billet Measurement System

Project Number

P12555

Project Family

N/A

Start Term

2011-2

End Term

2011-3

Faculty Guide

Dr. Alan Raisanen

Primary Customer

Benjamin Hailer (Special Metals)

Sponsor (Financial Support)

Special Metals

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Planning & Execution

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