Pressure calibrator used in avalanche control
A
GE Sensing product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Aug 22, 2000
SI Pressure Instruments has supplied a hydraulic PC6 Calibrator Kit to the California Department of Transport to calibrate pressure transmitters used in the GAZ-EZ avalanche control system.
UK-based SI Pressure Instruments - one of the world's leading manufacturers of pressure calibration equipment - has supplied a hydraulic PC6 Calibrator Kit to the California Department of Transport (CALTRANS), which is responsible for planning, designing, building, operating, and maintaining California's state highway system and other transportation modes.
The PC6 is being used to calibrate pressure transmitters used in the GAZ-EZ avalanche control system.
CALTRANS uses avalanche control as a pre-emptive measure to reduce the potential for avalanches in locations prone to such occurrences.
The purpose is to trigger small avalanches in a controlled setting.
The GAZ-EZ system is comprised of a series of remote shelters, each of which house propane and oxygen tanks and an electronic exploder controller communicating through radio telemetry to a personal computer in the maintenance station or vehicle.
A command from the operator causes the controller to open a solenoid valve assigned to a particular exploder.
The valve causes propane and oxygen valves to release the gases from their accumulator tanks to the exploder.
The oxygen pressure causes an igniter circuit at the exploder to trigger, causing a spark and igniting the mixture.
This results in an explosion that triggers an avalanche under controlled conditions.
The pressure transmitter measures the oxygen pressure from the oxygen supply.
Commenting, Edmund Ung, Senior Electronics Engineer at Caltrans said: "We chose SI's PC6 because of its portability and the fact that it had all the equipment needed to perform the calibration - the pump, gauge, adaptors, hoses and fittings - all in one kit." The PC6 is a lightweight, easy to use hand held pump which can generate pressures up to 1,000 bar, 15,000 psi.
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