Laser Technology • Applications
LaserM
DISTANCE MEASUREMENT USING LASERS
It may be a surprise to you that lasers can be used to measure distance. In fact, the principle is not that hard to understand.
Light travels in a straight line and at a known speed. It is possible, though technically challenging, to measure how long it takes a flash of light to travel from one place to the next. Alternatively, given the time it takes for light to travel between two points it is possible to work backwards and find the distance between the two points.
A laser distance measuring instrument works by sending out a short flash of laser light to something directly ahead and picking up some of the light reflected back. A super fast, stop watch times how long it takes for the light to complete the round trip. A miniature, built-in computer then calculates the distance that the light pulse must have travelled and divides this by two to get the distance to the Object ahead. Simple!
LASER SAFETY
It is always important to handle lasers carefully. Some of them are powerful enough to burn or cut. To avoid this type of danger, LaserM has always designed very low energy lasers which are so safe that they can’t cause any type of injury to people.
ADVANTAGES OF LASER TECHNOLOGY
There are many different ways to measure the distance to something but it is quite difficult to measure automatically with reasonable certainty and accuracy. Laser instruments are very good at this for a number of reasons.
Firstly, light travels so fast that moving objects appear to be completely stationary. This means that very rapid measurements are possible.
Secondly, laser light travels a long way in a perfectly straight line. So it’s just as easy to measure to something that is close or a long way away. More Importantly, you always know what the laser is measuring to and It doesn’t matter if you aim through a small halt, or are measuring to a small object next to another big one, or are measuring through a glass window.
Finally, a laser can measure to anything that you can see. This is fairly obvious. The way that you see something is by a small amount of light travelling from the sun, reflecting off an object and then into your eyes. If your eyes can see an object then so can the laser, but the laser also measures distance, whereas your eyes don't.
COAL HANDLING
stacker height control to 30 metres above stock pile
bucket wheel reclaimer positioning to 10 meters from stock pile
drum reclaimer proximity detection, 60 metre drum
rail car tippler hopper control, 10 meter hopper
coal silos up to 30 metres tall
linear stacker positioning over 450 metres
COLLISON AVOIDANCE
two overhead cranes on the same rail
moving boom
CHROME PLANT
stack level, 20 metre stock pile
ELECTRODE POSITION
are furnace control to 12 metres
ORE MINING
underground ore bins, 30 metres tall
ore pass blockage detection up to 100 metres
locomotive positioning up to 200 metres
above ground ore silos, 30 metres tall
GRAIN HANDLING
automatic grain silo level in process plant
manual stock monitoring
LONG RANGE POSITIONING
overhead cranes up to 150 metres
linear stacker position indication up to 450 metres
LOW COST LEVEL CONTROL
up to 10 metres
SILO LEVEL
coal
diamond ore
food products
gold ore
grain
molasses
polypropylene pellets
salt
sodium bicarbonate
sugar
email: ecms@on.aibn.com