Steel is an essential construction material, widely used in the building of bridges, houses, roads, and other infrastructure. As a major infrastructure country, China consumes nearly one billion tons of steel annually.

Facing immense consumption demands, improving production efficiency is crucial for steel enterprises. Under policies promoting energy conservation and emission reduction, simply expanding production capacity is no longer viable. The goal now is to improve efficiency within existing scales, and automation has become a key path toward that objective.

High-speed wire coils are an important steel product. The final step before warehouse dispatch is attaching tags—each wire coil receives a tag indicating the manufacturer, production date, specifications, etc. These tags serve as the “ID card” for each coil and are essential for circulation, sales, and usage. Therefore, tagging is critical for manufacturers. However, this process still relies heavily on manual labor, which poses high risks, occurs in harsh environments, involves repetitive tasks, and results in low efficiency and high error rates, severely hindering productivity.

After thoroughly researching and analyzing the application requirements of the coil tagging process, Vizum has leveraged its core technologies and technical advantages to officially launch a stereo vision-based high-speed wire coil tagging and positioning system, enabling full automation for this step in steel production.

The fully automated tagging and positioning system adopts stereo vision hardware and is developed on Vizum’s “Natural Learning” algorithm platform. It supports functions such as outer coil distance measurement, binding wire/strap position recognition, inner coil tag point determination, and tag re-inspection. It uses a universal communication protocol for easy integration with third-party robotic arms, allowing customers to quickly realize automated coil tagging and improve productivity.

Industry-first Capability to Recognize and Locate Tag Points for Both Single and Double Binding Wires/Straps

Wire coils are typically bound with either wire or straps, and there are both single and double bindings. Different binding methods affect the robotic arm’s tagging movement, making it necessary to identify the type of binding. However, most existing tagging identification solutions can only recognize single wire bindings, failing to meet diverse application needs.

Vizum is the first in the industry to successfully develop a solution that recognizes and locates tag points for both single and double bindings of wire and straps. The system not only identifies the tag points accurately but also provides additional useful parameters based on binding type. For example, when double wire binding is detected, the system provides the spacing and height difference between wires—critical parameters for robotic arm movement planning.

Outer Distance Measurement, Outer Binding Recognition, and Tag Re-inspection—Covering the Full Tagging Process

Besides determining the tag point, several challenges remain in achieving full automation, such as ensuring the robotic arm accurately reaches the scanning position and verifying the tagging result. Solving these challenges is essential for a complete automation workflow.

Vizum’s high-speed wire coil tagging solution includes outer coil distance measurement, outer binding recognition, and tag re-inspection functions, effectively addressing these problems.

Outer distance measurement: After the steel coil comes to a stop, the vision camera measures the initial distance between the robotic arm and the coil to guide the arm into the coil.

Outer binding recognition: The camera identifies the position of the binding wire/strap on the outside of the coil and provides the rotation angle needed for the robotic arm, which then adjusts its orientation, enters the coil, identifies the left and right tag points, and mounts the tag.

Tag re-inspection: After tagging, the system checks whether the tag was successfully attached, reducing the risk of failure.

With these capabilities, a single Vizum camera can guide the robotic arm into the coil → locate the tagging point → verify the result—enabling a full closed-loop operation for high-speed coil tagging.

Unique Advantages—Wide Field of View and Deep Depth of Field

Steel manufacturers produce various types of wire coils. Even at the same station, different specifications may be produced depending on scheduling. Variations in coil diameter introduce uncertainties in working distance for recognition and positioning, requiring the vision system to have a wide field of view and deep depth of field.

Vizum’s system is based on binocular vision principles, which inherently support wide field of view and deep depth of field. Users can accommodate working distances and detection ranges from several centimeters to meters without parameter adjustments, fully meeting the demands of coil tagging.

Strong Environmental Adaptability

High-speed wire coil production environments feature high temperatures, vibrations, dust, and stray light interference, placing high demands on the system’s environmental adaptability and robustness.

The system uses Vizum’s self-developed stereo vision camera—“ViEye”—which is designed to industrial-grade standards: IP65 protection, -30 to 80°C wide temperature range, and resistance to electromagnetic interference and vibration. It can penetrate dust, operate in dim environments, and filter stray light interference.

Committed to intelligent manufacturing, Vizum has consistently developed and implemented solutions for the steel industry, including rebar tag welding and verification/counting systems. Now, with the launch of the high-speed wire coil tagging and positioning system, steel manufacturers can achieve automation in this critical process, replacing manual labor, improving efficiency, and equipping the metallurgical industry with a powerful new tool.