“Ultrasonic imaging is a relatively new technology that can provide the detection of compressed air discharge or leaks, as well as electrical discharge and condition monitoring in the power generation sector,” according to RS.
“During inspections, the user is guided through the process with algorithms automatically detecting and analysing electric-discharge effects or quantifying air-leak loss rate and cost,” claimed the company. “This analytics capability makes the device highly intuitive and easy to use, which means that extensive training is not required.”
Sensing is through an array of 124 microphones working across 2 to 31kHz, and the processed microphone information is displayed over a camera image (1,640 x 1,234 with 2x digital zoom) on the built-in (800 x 480) colour screen.
Range is 0.3 to 100m (sound-level dependent), and surface discharge, floating discharge and discharge into air can be detected.
For compressed air, in “a typical industrial environment” according to RS, at 3bar, >0.032l/minute can be detected at 3m and >0.05l/min at 10m. Absolute minimum in a quiet environment is 0.016l/min at 1.2bar and 300mm.
There is on-board storage as well as dual-band Wi-Fi cloud connectivity for real-time quantification and reporting.
It is light enough (980g) to be used in one hand and runs for up to seven hours on the (985g) external battery.
As well as the Si124 there are two other models:
- Si124-LD exclusively for leak-detection only
- Si124-PD for electric utility applications only
All three models are shipping from RS globally. They can be found here