Slightly OT: industrial cameras

Greetings.

I have been asked to look into industrial video cameras and monitors. I am hoping some of you might be able to share any experiences using these.

I will be looking through a view port into a vacuum chamber to monitor the level of a slurry that fills the space between two adjacent, parallel, rotating cylenders.
The camera and monitor would have to be nema4x/ip66.

I could add chamber lighting through an additional view port for around 2,000 usd but an infrared camera might save this cost?

Thanks in advance. I in the meantime I will try to narrow down the 10 million Google hits

Ive had experience with a company called IVC-Industrial Video & Control. It should be easy enough to find thier website. Good Luck.

if your monitoring a slurry level why not mount an ultrasonic level senser? or would the mechanical components interfere? you may try Banner as well they have some mini cameras that may fit or you could look into the banner qt5ou ultrasonic distance senser which is suitable to measuring liquid levels in confined spaces

Thanks for the tips so far.

mordred said:

if your monitoring a slurry level why not mount an ultrasonic level senser? or would the mechanical components interfere?

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Mechanical geometry, is the main reason, On a previous project I ruled out everything except capactive probes and finally found one that almost worked. In that case, inside the chamber, vacuum, 300 deg f, food grade and due to no top clearence , 90 degree bend angle in the probe. It didn't work well enough for automatic level control ( due to other geometery issues I couldn't get the probe down into the bottom 6 inchs of slurry) But it did work well enough to be an operator level monitor and set a high level warning. Some how the operators didn't re-attach the thing correctly after a cleaning and it managed to fall between the rotating parts. fun fun.

Since I can't use the device for automatic level control anyway and I am not fool proof for mechanical risks, I am looking just for a visual meathod of monitoring "product level" with out an operator crawling on top of a hot machine to look inside.

try PELCO

I second PELCO. Particularly for CCTV switching equipment. It isn't cheap, but worked well for me.

John Hawkins said:

try PELCO

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Couple of things about cameras

What you asking is possible but below are a few things you may need to consider when dealing with a camera system.

1) Lighting is everything.You want to be able to create the highest contrast as possible without washout. Also when I say contrast I mean if this is going to be automatic I assum there is a large contrast in reflection between the slurry and the sides of the canister.
2)I am not sure what you are refering to when you say ifrared you mean Near Ifrared or Thermal imaging. The later is very expensive. If you mean NIR (Near Ifrared) It is used when you can not sheild against ******t light and your ******t light changes.
3) Reaction time. The higher the resolution of the camera the slower it can react. Not sure how fast you need to react but depending on resolution and other process items reaction can go up to .5 seconds
4)Brands;This is an emerging market, lots of companies lots of products. Call the big boys...Keyence, Banner...etc and they will send out a rep who can help you create what you want.