Product category:
Non-contact, Optical and Laser measurement systems
News Release from: Thermoteknix Systems | Subject: Infrared camera
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 30 May 2007
South African railway protected by
infrared camera
Thermoteknix installed VisIR Ti 200 infrared cameras on the Metro Rail system in Pretoria, South Africa to scan overhead cables for hotspots.
Early in 2007, Thermoteknix's South African distributor, Dynamic Instrumentation headed by MD Clive Dignon, were approached by Metro Rail in Pretoria who run the commuter rail operations for all the major cities in South Africa Their maintenance division were looking for a method to quickly scan their overhead cables for hotspots
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 30 Apr 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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After discussions with Metro, Clive came up with the novel idea of utilising Thermoteknix's VisIR Ti 200 infrared camera for predictive maintenance.
The VisIR camera is a real-time, hand-held thermal imaging camera used primarily for monitoring industrial plant equipment for hotspots, taking both infrared and visible still images simultaneously, as well as for scientific and R and D applications.
Metro's carriages are not set up for technical surveys of this type so a customised system using a standard pan/tilt photography tripod and bracket was used to mount the camera on the roof of the train.
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The camera's real time image output signal was converted from LVDS output into IP Packets by a Pleora iPort GigE engine and fed into a laptop over a CAT5 Ethernet link.
The data was captured and viewed using Thermoteknix proprietary ThermaGRAM product - a software program for real time data IR data acquisition, viewing and temperature analysis.
The resulting data is an impressive sequence of thermal images showing the overhead cables in real time as the train travelled along the track.
This survey system is designed to run overnight while the railways are not in service.
On the first night of trialling the system, around 90km of track were surveyed with the train running at around 30km per hour.
The trial identified hotspots on the overhead cables requiring engineering services to prevent electrical failure but just as interestingly, quite a number of birds' nests were also detected which could be a safety hazard.
In order to pinpoint the precise location of the potential problem hotspots, a GPS system was used with the clock on the camera synchronised with the GPS.
Waypoints were marked wherever a hotspot was recorded and the times were used to marry up the image with the waypoint.
Metro Rail are delighted with the initial results of the trial and are now in discussions to introduce the system throughout the rail network of South Africa.
Thermoteknix's range of camera systems are used in many fields including aerospace and defense, police, surveillance, motor racing, fire detection, R and D, Science, Cement and other industrial applications.
The company's headquarters are in Cambridge, England and Thermoteknix are represented by agents worldwide.
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