Patent ID: 8052920

Claim:
An apparatus for observing interior of a blast furnace system, the blast furnace system including a furnace wall body which surrounds an upright axis, an internal hot furnace which is disposed in and which is surrounded by the furnace wall body, a tuyere disposed to extend through the furnace wall body into the internal hot furnace along a viewing axis which is radial to the upright axis, and a furnace blowpipe which is disposed outwardly of the furnace wall body and which is in fluid communication with the tuyere, said apparatus comprising: a visible light guiding unit elongated along the viewing axis, and including a tubular mount which has furnace-side and viewing-side ends opposite to each other along the viewing axis, and an inner tubular wall surface that extends through said furnace-side and viewing-side ends to define a light path, said furnace-side end being secured to the furnace blowpipe such that the light path extends into the furnace blowpipe along the viewing axis to be in visual communication with the tuyere, a cantilevered stage disposed rearwardly of said viewing-side and below the light path, and front and rear walls which extend uprightly from said cantilevered stage to respectively terminate at front and rear rest ends, and which are spaced apart from each other along the viewing axis to define an accommodation space therebetween, said front and rear walls respectively having passage and peeping holes that extend therethrough and that are aligned with the light path so as to permit the light path to extend across said accommodation space; a beam splitter disposed in said accommodation space such that a beam of light propagating from the tuyere along the light path and incident on said beam splitter is split into a horizontal component which passes through said peeping hole, and a vertical component which is directed to propagate along an upright light route that is perpendicular to the light path; and a video camera system disposed to capture a light image from the vertical component of the light beam, and including an elongate casing which includes upper and lower end walls opposite to each other along a centerline in the upright direction, and a barrel wall interposed between said upper and lower end walls to define a cooling chamber, said lower end wall being engaged with said front and rear rest ends such that the centerline is in line with the upright light route, and a video camera including a camera body which is disposed in said cooling chamber, and a head portion which is disposed forwardly of said camera body along the centerline so as to capture the light image from the vertical component of the light beam.