We delivered the first unit of Spco-COUNT, a smart monitoring system that counts the number of hot rolled steel bars and detects short bars, to the steel bar rolling plant of a domestic electric arc furnace steelmaker. As of March 2022, it is in operation for all planned product sizes.

When hot rolled steel bars are cut after being cooled, there are short bars in some cases and inspectors have to pick them out through visual inspections.
The Spco-COUNT system checks to see if the number of steel bars that were cut and transferred is as specified on the monitor image, detects bars that are too short through image analysis, and sends an alarm to the inspector.
Implementing this system will decrease the defect ratio of products and improve the quality, which will ensure a stable supply of products.

Spco-COUNT is a product under Smart Products “S-Series” that is being developed in response to customers’ needs, such as ensuring factory safety and saving labor using robots; improving operation and product quality by using images, AI, and big-data analyses; and providing operation support service based on process analysis.
As of March 2022, 19 S-Series products (such as Spco-ROBO KNIGHT, Spco-LENGTH, Spco-HOTSPOT, and Spco-MOLD VIEW) have been placed in the market. We aim to centrally integrate operation rooms, which used to be installed at each plant, and make systems smarter, such as achieving remote operation, and ultimately one-man operation.