IR scanner survives Katrina's worst
A
Land Instruments International product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jun 28, 2006
A land scanner head was recently returned to its US office with a handwritten note that read: "Unit has been underwater during Hurricane Katrina - please check out and repair if needed".
"Secure protection against hostile environments" is a favourite phrase amongst manufacturers of process monitoring equipment - but infra-red temperature measurement specialist Land Instruments International has had its confidence in its product vindicated more dramatically than it could have imagined.
One of the company's LSP61 line scanner heads was returned to its US office with a handwritten note that read: "Unit has been underwater during Hurricane Katrina - please check out and repair if needed".
When service technicians removed the covers from the housing they feared the worst - only to discover that the sensitive detector and complex electronic circuitry inside were completely dry and undamaged.
The scanner had come from the production line of a company making building materials in Mobile, Alabama, which was devastated by heavy rains and high winds and left under several feet of water when the hurricane passed through in August 2005.
It survived its immersion intact thanks to its robust cast aluminium casing and the IP65 environmental sealing between the casing, covers and sapphire window, which meets the standards of EN61320:1999 Class A for immunity and emission and IEC1010 for safety.
Although this rigorous specification exemplifies the high engineering standards to which Land works, wind and water were not in the forefront of the R and D team's minds when they developed the LSP series of scanning heads.
Instead the emphasis was on compactness to permit installation in restricted spaces, and protection against excessive heat from the process being monitored.
The LSP61 measures just 209 x 206 x 100mm.
It generates high speed temperature profiles (up to 100Hz) in the measurement range 50 to 400C, with accuracy to better than +/-3C.
It has a wide scan angle of 80 degrees and a field of view of 100:1, focusing at target distances up to 3 metres.
A built-in Class 2 laser defines the scan plane and sighting angle, making the initial set up a quick and simple process.
A complete range of scanner mounting assemblies, water cooling and air purging options are also available to suit most operating environments (as the Hurricane Katrina incident convincingly demonstrated).
Completing the system is the new compact size LSP Landscan Signal Processor, a further development of the proven Landscan LPU_2E, with serial and Ethernet temperature data outputs than can interface to local process controls, Landscan NT or the new Landscan Configuration Professional software.
Suitable for a wide range of low-temperature applications, the LSP_System is especially useful for plastics thermoforming, coating processes, paper, polymer-based flooring and building products such as plaster board.
In the Mobile customer's plant, the LSP61 scanner is located at the end of a curing process.
The image it produces helps the user to maintain uniformity of both the curing and an upstream coating/finishing operation.
Variations in temperature can rapidly identify and pin point nonuniform coating, which if not detected can produce undesired surface finish characteristics and potential for out-of-tolerance dimension attributes.
Another benefit is that nonuniform temperature in the cross-machine direction will relate to uneven heating in the curing process which, if caught early, can be adjusted to balance oven performance before product quality goes out of established tolerances.
Not what you're looking for? Search the site.
Contact Land Instruments International
Tel +44 1246 417691
Other Land Instruments International stories
-
Thermal imaging systems offer high reliability
Each FTI-E system has an industrial processor that provides local process control, configuration and process visualisation -
Sampler provides continuous emissions monitoring
The heated filter, sample drier and combined filter/drier of the Unicorn flue gas sampler can be installed in different configurations to suit any analyser. -
Infra-red thermometer suits furnace use
Measurement data can be stored on the optional DL-1000 data logger, or on a Bluetooth-enabled iPAQ, PC or laptop. -
Thermal imager monitors machinery
The FTI Mv thermal imager can be linked with vision analysis software such as LabView with IMAQ to create a sophisticated process monitoring system. -
Thermal imager captures two images simultaneously
The TP8 thermal imager from Land Instruments International offers Bluetooth voice recording technology and a detector resolution 45% higher than the standard 320 x 240 pixels.
Browse by category
-
Capital Equipment (3,532)
- Capital Equipment (1)
- Compressors and Air Treatment (545)
- Electrical hardware (131)
- Electronics Manufacturing, Tools, Instruments (192)
- Machinery and Production Equipment (1,133)
- Manufacturing Machinery and Plant Equipment (478)
- Production line blowers and fans (74)
- Robotics, Handling and Storage (978)
- Consultancy and Services (927)
-
Control and Instrumentation (5,141)
- Cabling, Conduit, Signal Conditioning (818)
- CNC and Motion Controllers (190)
- Control and Instrumentation (3)
- HMIs/Operator Interfaces (297)
- Logic Controllers, Timers and Relays (96)
- Mid-range and Large PLCs (204)
- Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications (1,209)
- Plantwide control (1,354)
- Power Supplies, Uninterruptible Power (577)
- Smaller-Sized PLCs (393)
-
Drives, Motors and Controls (3,449)
- Drives, Motors and Controls (2)
- Industrial Drives/Controls (1,292)
- Industrial Motors (502)
- Linear Drives and Motors (121)
- Precision Motors and Gears (434)
- Stepper and Servo Drives, Motors, Controls (1,096)
-
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (4,324)
- Batteries, chargers and circuit protection (587)
- Connectors, Terminals, Busbars, Slip Rings (723)
- Electrical and Electronic Components (652)
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (4)
- Electrical and Electronic Subassemblies (377)
- Enclosures and Equipment Cooling Fans (722)
- Knobs, Handles and Enclosure Hardware (430)
- PCs and Embedded Systems (829)
-
Engineering Design Software (6,385)
- 2D CAD software (203)
- 3D CAD software (1,199)
- CAM, CNC, production management software (583)
- Data, document management software (324)
- Electrical design software (167)
- Engineering Design Software (17)
- FEA and structural analysis software (377)
- File conversion software, data capture (358)
- Fluid, thermal, noise, vibration software (339)
- Materials design and moulding design software (153)
- Maths, charting, statistics, QA software (325)
- PLM and collaboration software (665)
- Process, instrumentation, automation software (269)
- Publishing and documentation software (234)
- Rendering, visualisation, styling software (208)
- Simulation, modelling, validation software (964)
-
Engineering Industry News, Resources (6,199)
- Electronic Resources for Engineers (273)
- Engineering Business News, Views (388)
- Engineering Conferences (438)
- Engineering Education, Resources, Standards (851)
- Engineering Exhibitions, Events (578)
- Engineering Guides, Newsletters (354)
- Engineering Industry Developments, Awards (635)
- Engineering Industry News, Resources (4)
- Engineering Industry Reports, Surveys (597)
- Engineering Recruitment, Employment (219)
- Engineering Seminars (421)
- Engineering Training Courses (458)
- Health and Safety Consultancy, Software (180)
- Health and Safety Events, Training, News (285)
- Health and Safety Legislation (403)
- Health and Safety Strategy, Risk Assessment (115)
- Machine Building (4,630)
-
Materials and Processing (3,040)
- Materials and components (2,271)
- Materials and Processing (5)
- Materials processing and testing (292)
- Rapid Prototyping (472)
-
Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (5,680)
- Data Acquisition Hardware and PC I/O Boards (491)
- Data acquisition Software and Communications (505)
- Data loggers (428)
- Electrical and Electronic Testing, PAT Equipment (645)
- Form/co-ordinate, optical, vision instruments (765)
- Gauges, Indicators and Instruments (449)
- Materials testing equipment (439)
- Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (1)
- Telecomms/network test equipment, software etc (159)
- Testing and Calibration Services and Information (522)
- Testing, analysing and monitoring equipment (1,276)
-
Powertrain Design (3,723)
- Bearings (986)
- Chains and belts (334)
- Gears, brakes, couplings and engines (1,482)
- Hydraulic Components (475)
- Lubricants (441)
- Powertrain Design (4)
-
Sensors (7,313)
- Accelerometers and Vibration Sensors (450)
- Barcode Sensors (103)
- Flowmeters and Flow Sensors (649)
- Gas, Chemical, Radiation, Magnetic Sensors (293)
- Humidity and Environmental Sensors (158)
- Level Sensors and Leak Detectors (539)
- Linear Position Sensors (417)
- Loadcells, Force Sensors, Torque Sensors (732)
- Pressure sensors (642)
- Proximity Sensors (715)
- Rotary Position, Tilt and Angular Sensors (564)
- Sensors (12)
- Temperature sensors (623)
- Vision and Colour Sensors (1,416)
- Small Mechanical Components, Joining, Tools (2,057)
- Valves, Pumps, Process Hardware (3,730)
