INNOVATION IN
UTILITY POWER LINE INFRARED IMAGING
By Harley Denio, President
Oregon Infrared has been performing quality thermographic services
in the Pacific Northwest region since 1997. The organization has been
on a constant upward climb since its beginnings, and its reputation
for safety, reliability, and accuracy is well known. As sales and
marketing efforts continue to create opportunities, new applications
for the service arise and are capitalized upon.
During the year 2000 a contract was let for utility power line
Infrared imaging for one of the local public utility districts. Being
a competitive business and knowledgeable of the electrical industry, I
was very conscious of expense outlays to satisfy the needs of the job.
Yet I was still striving to provide the highest quality and value
product to the customers. I therefore created a tool that allows
maximum speed and accuracy for report gathering at minimal expense.
The following information shows how I gathered data for utility power
lines and substations with this tool.
Early in 2000, I was approached by a public utility district to
look at some pedestal mount 12.5 kV switchgear. We were doing basic
infrared imaging for loose connections and overloads. They were
impressed with my product and asked me to do some additional Infrared
imaging on some power poles. There were some suspect areas that they
were aware of and wanted to confirm the problem spots (of course I
said, "that'll be extra").
We scanned several pole-mounted switches from a bucket truck and
several anomalies were located and recorded. As a result of the
information gathered, a new contract was offered to do a drive-by scan
of all the 115kv transmission lines in the PUD district later in the
year.
This equated into about 170 miles of line and 42 substations to be
done in 6 days in December. It is pretty much guaranteed to be raining
at this time of year and the prospect of hanging our infrared camera
out of the door of a truck for 6 days in inclement weather was not
very appealing. All kinds of damage to the equipment were imaginable.
It became important to devise a way to provide the service while
lowering the risk to the camera. It was time to put on the thinking
cap and find a solution. Some of the criteria had to be:
1) Protect IR camera from environment
2) Protect IR camera from physical damage
3) Ease of use
4) Low cost to produce
The result was an acrylic box with a camera tripod head mounted to
a platform. These two pieces would be then attached together and
mounted and secured to a truck door.
The idea of the box is to provide a safe environment for the IR
camera as it travels outside the vehicle, while allowing the data to
be gathered safely and in relative comfort inside the cab. One of the
criteria for construction was that the box have doors to provide
access to the buttons that operate the camera functions.
This particular box was designed to accommodate a Flir (Inframetrics)
model PM 280. Vibration control was also incorporated at as many
points as possible. The tool needed to be flexible enough in design to
accommodate the shapes of various different vehicle doors. Ease of
setup was also considered. Another important piece of criteria was the
protection of the lens from the elements and protection of the IR
detector from random exposure to sunlight.
These ideas were brought to a plastics fabrication shop: Spectrum
Plastics, Portland Or.
503-626-8284. The owner and I spent several hours exploring ideas,
functions and material selection. We discussed different approaches to
solve and provide for all of the needs of this enterprise. After much
brainstorming, a design was settled on, rough drafts were drawn, and
production commenced.
It is understood that the window of the cab will be open while
Infrared imaging with this design. As it turned out, the size and
shape of the box acted as a windbreak, and the interior of the cab
stayed relatively warm and rain free.
The complete system for Infrared imaging consists of the box and
platform that attaches to the outside of a vehicle door and a tripod
mounted 8mm camcorder located in front of the thermographers seat. The
video signal from the IR camera dumps into the camcorder via a video
cable. This allows for viewing images either at the eyepiece or the
fold out screen on the 8mm camcorder. This also allows for videotaping
the thermal images. Visual images can be taped through the front
windshield.
The main benefit of this whole idea was the reduced cost of
Infrared imaging utility power lines and substations as opposed to
purchasing and outfitting a van dedicated to Infrared imaging. This
allows an infrared service company like Oregon Infrared to provide a
high quality product for a reasonable price.
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