HP-700T — 750℃ Direct Application Label for Hot Steel Billets

Overview

Billets cut from the continuous caster, with end-face / side-face temperatures around 750℃, covered in scale that keeps flaking off. Billets wait on the cooling bed, get transported, get stacked, and eventually go into the reheating furnace or straight to the mill. A robotic labeling station is installed downstream of the cutting machine: MES pushes the heat number, the thermal transfer printer prints on the spot, the robot picks the label, and it is applied automatically to the billet end face. On contact, the adhesive layer softens and penetrates the rough pores of the scale, forming a mechanical anchor as it cools; the barcode stays scannable while the billet cools, is moved by crane, and sits in the stack, and a scanning station confirms identity and feeds it back to MES before furnace entry.

Process Challenges

• Between the caster cut and stacking, the billet has no physical identity
• The common approach today — record the position and log the heat number by hand — loses batch attribution the moment the stack order gets disturbed or a job is inserted
• Inkjet coding cannot form a legible mark on 750℃ scale
• Manual tagging requires an operator to carry a tagging pole up to a hot billet

Features

• 750℃ direct application: application surface up to 750℃ — the label does not burn, curl, or fall off
• Instant high-temperature adhesive: softens and bonds on contact, anchoring into the pores of the scale as it cools — not a conventional pressure-sensitive mechanism
• Scale-surface adaptability: engineered for rough, uneven billet surfaces with loose scale
• High-contrast imaging when hot: the barcode retains contrast even against the billet's own glow, supporting hot-state scanning
• Thermal shock resistance: withstands rapid cooling on the bed or localized water spray without cracking or peeling
• Robot-compatible: roll-fed supply for continuous feeding on automatic labelers without jamming
• On-site thermal transfer printing: supports print-and-apply with heat numbers pushed live from MES
• Resists scale flake-off: deep anchoring means loose scale doesn't take the label with it

Benefits

• Removes manual work from the hot zone: operators no longer approach 750℃ billets to tag them; hot-zone manual work approaches zero
• Identity from the moment of production: a unique barcode right after the cut — batch attribution survives even a scrambled stack
• Identity confirmed before furnace entry: scanning replaces manual checking; a single billet is identified in seconds
• Heat number traceability: quality claims on finished goods trace straight back to the specific caster heat and billet number
• Fewer mix-ups and misrouting: charging errors and wrong-mill deliveries drop significantly
• No maintenance burden: no inkjet equipment cleaning, no paint consumables
• Seamless MES integration: the barcode is the data entry point; manual ledger entry is eliminated

Specifications

• Model: HP-700T (HP Series)
• Printing layer: Inorganic coating (White), 10±1µ
• Label core: Brass foil, 20±1µ
• Back layer: Inorganic adhesive, 30±2µ
• Adhesion: 100–400 gf/25mm (stainless steel plate / 180° peel)
• Heat resistance: Good (700°C × 5hr)
• Application temperature: 450–800°C
• Thermal transfer ink ribbon: YS-540 or YS-4

Applications

• Steel billet / steel slab
• Rough, scale-covered hot steel surfaces (550–750℃)
• Billet end face straight from the continuous caster
• Hot material on the cooling bed, during transport and stacking, up to furnace entry

Testing & Certifications

• RoHS / REACH compliant