Engineers working on the London Underground have adopted a brand new way of working more efficiently: the FLIR C2 Pocket-Sized Thermal Camera.

In the London Underground, where millions of travellers every year rely on a strong, on-time network of trains to get to where they need to go, the upkeep of the tracks and regular maintenance are of the utmost importance.

Sometimes, due to wear and tear or other factors, workers in the Underground will be required to isolate sections of track in order to weld new, improved sections to the rail. However, this poses a serious problem – how do you know when the rails have cooled enough for reattachment to the main line?

Welding, of course, requires high levels of heat to mould metal into a certain shape. This also means that the rail being worked on gradually rises in temperature, posing a serious risk to anyone who should touch it by accident.

Those working on the rails therefore need a reliable, accurate and easy way to check the temperature of the track, without actually having to touch it.

As part of a trial, those working on the tracks are now starting to use FLIR’s C2 thermal cameras to spot the level of heat from a distance, allowing them to much easily judge how hot the rail actually is.

The FLIR C2 is a thermal camera; instead of capturing standard digital images, this specially made product is made to detect infrared radiation (heat) which is completely invisible to the human eye. In reality, this means you can see how hot objects are by simply capturing an image.

You can see how this works in the following images.

 

In the image above, you can see how the work looks if it were to be captured with a normal camera (the FLIR C2 actually records both a thermal and a digital image simultaneously). As you can see, there's no way possible by looking at this to know that the tracks being worked on are currently extremely hot.

In comparison, take a look at this thermal snapshot.

Almost directly next to the worker, you can see a clear high brightness white/orange section of the thermal image. This shows that that particular area is much hotter than other areas around it; indeed, you can see how much it contrasts with the walls, worker's body heat and even the track it's attached to.

You may also notice there's some heat being output further to the left of the image - this is coming from the high intensity light source the workers are using (most types of light produce heat as they operate).

Here's another example of how it works. This is the standard digital image:

Again, there's nothing here that shows there's hot objects present.

But then take a look at this:

There's clear hotspots around the worker; the hottest is where he's currently working, then there's slightly dimmer colour around him on a track he'd previously worked on, plus the lights around him.

You can see for yourself the benefits the camera brings - after work is completed, the worker can move out of the way and the person using the thermal camera can grab snapshots of the rail as it cools down. It's also possible to use the camera simply to view the track as it cools - as it does so, the intense white/orange colour of the track will gradually fade back into the purple/blue colour you can see around it.

This type of study is being gradually adopted by workers on the Underground as part of the trial. If successful, the trial is likely to become standard working practice and workers will be equipped with these cameras to study the tracks.

About the FLIR C2 Thermal Camera

FLIR C2 Thermal Camera

FLIR's C2 is the world's first truly pocket-sized thermal camera.

With the C2, you can carry out thermal surveys like the engineers in this article, spot overheating electrical components, see the body heat of others, detect hot pipes and even spot minor problems with buildings such as spreading moisture or a draught coming through a window.

Want more information on the C2? Follow the link below!

>> More About the C2