A new neural network classifier is proposed for the automatic real-time surface inspection of high-speed cold steel strips having 11 different types of defects. 46 geometrical and gray-level features are extracted for the defect classification. 3241 samples of Posco's Kwangyang steel factory are used for training and testing the neural network classifier. The developed classifier produces plausible 15% error rate which is much better than 20-30% error rate of human vision inspection adopted in most of domestic steel factories.
