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MultiCAM |
The first CoroCAM units, which provide video images of corona discharges on high-voltage equipment, have been sold in Australia, which means that all six major continents, including the Indian sub-continent, have been covered.
This follows closely on the heels of a major sale in North Africa to a company in Libya and sales in Algeria and other countries bordering the Mediterranean.
At the other end of the African continent, the CSIR is engaging with a local company, which is in the same customer market with different products.
According to Alastair Chaffey, who is responsible for marketing and sales of the CoroCAM range in the CSIR's sensor science and technology competence area, they have finally managed to enter the Australian market after appointing a distributor for the Australasia region in New Zealand.
"Although we started modestly with a CoroCAM I and CoroCAM III, there have already been a number of enquiries for CoroCAM 504 and MultiCAM. We have high hopes of this region catching up fast with the others," he says.
There has been an upsurge in demand in countries throughout the world recently for the CoroCAM series, a range of instruments used to identify corona and surface discharges on high-voltage equipment. The CoroCAM range operates both at night and during the day.
The recently-released CoroCAM 504 model, which replaces the first daylight model CoroCAM IV+, is the most user-friendly and efficient system ever. It provides solar-blind daylight UV detection, image processing and storage in a lightweight, hand-held unit the size of a standard video camera. The unit is a fully-integrated system containing its own rechargeable power source, as well as an on-board data storage system. This enables the unit to be transported in a small, rigid case ready for immediate deployment and use on arrival at an inspection site.
CoroCAM systems have drawn attention in North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Far East as well as here at home in South Africa. Customers are industrial end-users and service providers to industry. The camera systems have been demonstrated and marketed in China, Taiwan, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Korea, Brazil, the USA and Canada. NASA will use the camera to monitor the high-voltage electrical supply equipment that provides power to keep the JPL facility operational.
The CSIR relies on an extended network of international distributors to facilitate the sales and service of CoroCAM. Distributors are located in North and South America, Europe, Asia, the Far East and New Zealand.
The highly-successful CoroCAM systems were developed by the sensor science and technology competence area of the CSIR. Research and development work is done across the cycle of innovation, from strategic basic research to technology transfer and industrialisation in the fields of smart structures and materials, electro-optic sensing and imaging and ultrasonics. Within these areas, research is done with a view to introduce new sensing technologies to industry and the adoption of these by industry. Novel applications are investigated across a broad range of industries, including energy, defence, medical, process control, security, food and beverage and optical systems.
Enquiries: CSIR Communications
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