We Steel Got It: Automating Billet Identification & Tagging

Combining six-axis robotics, 3D vision, automated welding, and production data to improve steel billet traceability, accuracy, and worker safety.

Steel manufacturers like Nucor Steel rely on accurate billet identification to maintain traceability from casting through downstream production. As production demands increased, its manual tagging process created opportunities for identification errors while requiring employees to work near hot steel, overhead crane traffic, and repetitive equipment.

Nucor turned to Concept Systems to develop a robotic billet tagging system that combines six-axis robotics, 3D machine vision, automated welding, and production data to improve traceability while reducing manual interaction with the process.

The Problem: Manual Billet Tagging

Steel billets are tagged as they come off the caster to preserve critical production information, including the heat number used to identify the steel when it moves into downstream processing. Reliable identification becomes especially important when billets are temporarily stored before being used.

The existing process required operators to print multiple tags in a remote room, carry them to the tagging location, and manually attach each tag to the correct billet. A dropped, misplaced, or incorrectly ordered tag could create traceability and quality-control issues across multiple billets.

The process also exposed employees to a demanding work environment. Operators worked near high-temperature steel and overhead crane traffic while using a Hilti tool with significant kickback to tag approximately 1,200 billets per shift.

Nucor needed a more reliable way to maintain billet traceability while reducing manual interaction with the tagging process.

The Solution: Vision-Guided Robotic Billet Tagging

Concept Systems developed BilletID, an automated tagging system that integrates a six-axis robot, 3D laser scanning, an SQL database, automated tag marking and feeding, welding, and code verification.

The system is designed to operate largely unattended, locating each billet, applying the correct production tag, verifying successful installation, and recording the completed transaction.

Locating Each Billet with 3D Vision

Billets move across the cooling bed from the four-strand caster. Once a group indexes into position, the plant PLC signals the robotic system to begin the tagging sequence.

A heat shield lowers and the six-axis robot performs a 3D laser scan of the cooling bed. The scanner creates a point-cloud representation of the billets, allowing the system to determine their actual positions rather than relying on fixed coordinates. The scan can also identify whether a billet already has a tag.

Connecting Production Data to the Physical Product

At the same time, the system’s SQL database receives production information from the mill’s Level 2 system, including bar number, heat number, strand number, and cut length.

That information is associated with the appropriate billet and placed into the tag-printing queue, connecting production data with the physical material moving through the mill.

Automated Tagging and Welding

After scanning the billets, the robot retrieves a stud from a bowl feeder and verifies it at a dedicated station. The robot then retrieves the corresponding metal tag containing the production information and verifies that it has been properly loaded.

With the stud and tag loaded into the end effector, the robot moves to the identified billet position. A pneumatically controlled weld tip extends to the billet, and a capacitive-discharge welding process permanently attaches the metal identification tag.

Verifying Traceability

After welding, a Cognex 2D code reader verifies that the tag is present and readable. Following a successful read, the SQL database records the verification date and time before the robot continues to the next billet.

Once all billets within range have been tagged and verified, the robot returns to its home position and the protective heat shield rises. The plant PLC is then notified that the robot has cleared the tagging area.

The Results

The automated billet tagging system improved traceability, quality control, productivity, and worker safety by replacing a repetitive manual process with an integrated robotic solution.

• Reduced opportunities for human error in matching identification tags to billets
• Reduced employee interaction with hot steel, overhead crane traffic, and repetitive tagging equipment
• Automated billet locating, tagging, welding, and verification
• Created a digital record confirming when each tag was successfully applied and read
• Established a foundation for broader plant-wide track-and-trace capabilities
• Achieved a 24-month return on investment

A Foundation for Plant-Wide Traceability

BilletID was designed with future track-and-trace capabilities in mind. Connecting physical material identification with production data creates opportunities to improve inventory visibility as steel moves through storage and downstream processing.

The same approach can also be applied to other identification points throughout a steel mill, including coils, plates, slabs, and finished products prepared for shipping.

 

Project Details