Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

observes steel plates on a conveyer . . . Says Dr. Edward R. Sharp, Director of the laboratory: "The 10-by-10 foot tunnel at the Lewis Flight Propul- sion Laboratory is a new facility. It was designed with closed-circuit TV in mind as the medium for remote observation. Without television, we would be forced to observe the tests by other means, such as periscopes, motion picture film, or even direct vision — each of which lacks one or more of the advantages of scope, flexibility, immediacy, or safety represented by closed- circuit television." Watching the Furnace By providing observation of action inside reheating furnaces and along a roller table for steel slabs, RCA closed-circuit equipment at the Weirton Steel Company has provided human operators with a third "eye" in two separate steel-processing operations and has elimi- nated a problem of cold edges in slabs when they over- hang the hearth, according to Ralph A. Teare, Manager, RCA Industrial Products. Three cameras have been positioned at the side of reheating furnaces in Weirton's hot mill, and connected by closed-circuit to a monitor in the furnaces' remote- control booth 150 feet away and around a corner from the cameras. A fourth camera has been mounted to scan a 350-foot roller table approaching the finishing mills. This camera enables operators in the control booths of both the roughing train and the approach table to "see" and make certain that the steel slabs are properly positioned in transit between the two opera- tions. All of the cameras have been specially adapted to their hot surroundings. Each of the furnace cameras is encased in a special metal box with a conditioned air system which maintains the camera's temperature at gazes through a microscope at thin scraper blades. an efficient working level. A special casing also pro- tects the camera used to scan the roller table. The Lukens Steel Company installation, incorpo- rating nine separate RCA industrial TV cameras, makes possible one-man operation of a huge furnace line and enables a single operator to control a complete plate- finishing shearing operation. According to L. M. Cur- tiss, General Works Manager for Lukens, the furnace operation at the company's ultra-modern Navy alloy plate building is a push-button operation controlled by a single operator in a control booth. Continuous ob- servation of all areas of the furnace line is essential for maximum safety in loading the huge alloy plates on the conveyor and carrying them through heating, quench- ing, cooling and discharging operations. With the help of six TV cameras feeding directly into monitors in the control booth, the operator in the booth is able to see what transpires even at various "blind spots" on the line, some over 600 feet away and around corners. Reducing Fatigue and Error The effect of the RCA closed-circuit installation at the American Can Company in Cincinnati has been to increase quality and production by 100 percent and to reduce fatigue and possible error, according to F. J. Connelly, Manager of the Canco plant. Peering at thin scraper blades through a microscope, the system projects the images, magnified 288 times, on a 21-inch TV receiver located a few feet away. Previously, according to Mr. Connelly, inspectors had to inspect the blades by squinting through a 30-power microscope — "a tedious operation which induces fatigue and error." "The remote TV inspection system enables our in- spectors to check twice as many blades in the same given time, with appreciably greater accuracy and with a negligible minimum of fatigue," he said. RADIO AGE 79