Subscriber Discussion

Thermal Imaging/Fire Protection

DB
Danny Barr
Sep 17, 2014

Hi,

I have a customer in the waste managment industry looking for a thermal imaging camera to detect heat above 50 degrees celcius in an area around 25M x 25M. The camera would also need an alarm output to contact a monitoring station.

Has anyone any experience of this?

Thanks

GC
Greg Cortina
Sep 17, 2014

[Note: commenter is from FLIR]

Danny, This is being accomplished due to fires at recycling facilities using our FC-R series cameras / detectors. They can have an image and relay on alarm. Hunter.Robinson@flir.com has experience doing this. Previously it was done with a more expensive thermal solution. Greg

DB
Danny Barr
Sep 17, 2014
That's super thanks Greg
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Robert Tabbara
Sep 18, 2014

Hi Danny,

This sounds so familiar :). I actually posted the same question here on IPVM earlier this year and was also directed to Flir. We tried Flir but it didn’t work for our client for the following reasons:

1- The Flir camera was not able to create multiple zones. Our client has several kinds of chemicals that can combust at different temperatures in the same 25X25 area. It got expansive for them to install multiple cameras to monitor this area.

2- With Flir, you can't set alarms based on the rate that the Temp is increasing by. You can only set a threshold. Our client wanted to create different zones in this area and monitor the rate of the temperature increase in each zone hoping they can catch the fire before it happens.

3- The alert was limited to close contact output. Our client facilities were not always manned. They wanted Text/ Phone notification, etc. Flir suggested using VideoIQ and an email server, to create these rules. We also had to incorporate a VMS to manage users and schedules. It started getting messy.

We are currently working with DRC. We solved their issue by using a combination of inexpansive thernal sensors over their staging areas and thermal cameras over the chemical dumpster area. DRC has a good solution that solved many of our issues above. Feel free to reach out if you need more info.

JH
John Honovich
Sep 18, 2014
IPVM

Robert,

Thanks for the feedback.

Who is DRC? I did a search for 'DRC', 'DRC thermal' and 'DRC camera' but did not find any relevant matches.

Do you mean DRS?

GC
Greg Cortina
Sep 18, 2014
Robert may have been absolutely accurate a year ago and for his application. If your application is exactly the same and not what you described I would consider his solution. However your description closely matches the system we just completed and have several more specified which made the AHJ's very happy as a mitigating method. Things change and not all projects are the same.
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Robert Tabbara
Sep 18, 2014

Sorry. DRS WatchMaster Elite. Also using thermal sensors worked well. Sensors are 1/20 cost of Thermal cameras and can be used to solve this issue if the customer doesn't care about seeing a picture. Greg, I would love to see what you guys have changed since last year. Feel free to call or email to setup a demo.

JH
John Honovich
Sep 18, 2014
IPVM

You mention sensors but you link / reference a camera? Can you clarify?

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Robert Tabbara
Sep 22, 2014

On the sensor we used PSC-CMS made by Process Sensors. The camera is the DRS WatchMaster Elite mentioed above. Hope this helps

DB
Danny Barr
Sep 23, 2014

Thanks for all the input guys.

Greg: What sort of a system did you go for?

GC
Greg Cortina
Sep 23, 2014

Robert,

Thanks for the update, it sounds like you did an immense amount of investigation to satisfy your customers needs and came up with a working solution for them. I believe that is the definition of an integrator at its finest.

In this instance, the customer asked for something very similar to Danny. Monitor waste piles and alert when the temperature exceeds. We used a couple of FLIR FC-R cameras for the pile and then some FC-S cameras for the perimeter security. It is monitored locally and off-site with a Video Monitoring Station. This was at the request of the fire department.

The needs were not as demanding as your customer so it was much easier to fulfill, especially with the recent release of the FC-R series. When you investigated we would have offered the A-310 product and that was significantly more expensive.

When we run into needs such as yours, we usually partner with a company such as PivitolVision who can do scans, data collection and alarming while using our calibrated detectors.

Hunter was directly responsible for this application so he would be the best to chat with. I was only partially involved.

Greg

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Robert Tabbara
Sep 26, 2014

Hi Greg,

Few questions:

1- Can you create differnt zones within a view to setup different tempertures alerts per zone.

2- Does the camera have a setting to monitor the rate of increase. For example, can we set the camera to send an alert if the temp increase by 5 degreed within 3 min? This will help with an early warning.

3- Can you visually see the heat, brighter red, etc

Thanks

GC
Greg Cortina
Sep 27, 2014

Robert,

1. Yes (4)

2. No

3. Inaccurately. You can turn on a color palette and different temperatures will appear a different color and change based on temperature. The display can show you the temperature of the items inside the detecion box or the point which would be more accurate.

Attached is the link to the user install manual. Please reach out to your local FLIR BD guy to arrange a test / training / etc.

http://www.flir.com/uploadedFiles/CVS_Americas/Security_-_NEW/Products/FC-Series/FLIR-FC-Series-S-Installation-Manual.pdf

You are welcome!

Greg

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Carter Maslan
Sep 28, 2014
Camio

Routing alerts based on colors detected in specific zones is a great application. So if your camera choice can upload via https, http, ftp, or email, then the presence or change in color in specific zones can trigger alerts that talk to the monitoring station (via UDP message or other). We have a REST/json API you can use to create your solution, and I'd love to showcase your solution as part of our API launch. Please contact me at carter@camiocam.com if you'd like to work together on that prior to our API release - thanks.

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