What Is Cheaper To Use: Rigid Borescopes, Flexible Fiberscopes, Videoscopes or Your Own Eyes?
There are many questions about the perfect choice of modern assessment of materials and equipment without disassembling it. Borescopes, videoscopes, flexible fiberscopes, or even your own naked eye can evaluation and conclude how things can be fixed or what’s the problem in it. As we are going from day to day inspection, of course all inspectors and technicians are worried about the cost of the equipment to be used and the long term impact it can give. To clear things up in terms of the ease and economy in using modern equipment, here are the most important points to consider in determining which one to choose:
A rigid borescope is a fantastic tool for inspecting straight one-lined holes. This is widely used in engine cylinders, forensics, and buildings. Against other commercial scopes, this is the cheapest one. For clearer images, the larger the scope, the clearer the images so if you are looking for the best result in straight holes you should use the largest possible borescope that fits the hole of application.
Flexible fiberscopes are needed if you are inspecting a certain part inside certain equipment or a material that needs maneuvering. This is widely used to take a look at the conditions of turbine blades, seals, compressed air inlets, and combustion chambers without disassembling them. Compared to other scopes, this can give less quality images due to some bending and maneuvering inside its body, the larger the scope the clearer the image. The images vary from 10,000 pixels to at most 22,000 pixels depending on the diameter. With clearer application, more raw materials are used in manufacturing, thus the scope becomes more expensive.
Videoscopes are made out of the same lens as the other ones but have its own camera view at the other end. It has its own miniature video camera at the flexible tube end. It can go at most 300 feet so you can have an easy way of inspecting things. These also vary from each other depending on the type and specifications of the camera being used at the other end. The prices are also determined by the variety of electrical wires and the complex wavelength it can produce to give better results.
While there are many categories of scopes, you can still depend on your naked eye for inspection and evaluating your equipment. If you can disassemble the equipment or engine and you are sure about what you are doing then you won’t need any scopes. But if you are in a hurry of evaluating things like that of a client or your company’s customer then you should have a videoscope or a borescope for this job. It all depends on the location, the size of the material, and the time frame to get it fixed.
Once again, the type of inspecting tool to be used depends on the bits and pieces you are dealing with. All factors are being laid out in this article and at the end of the day it depends on you as the evaluating body to sum things up according to your preferences to get things done in short periods with less expense.
Does My Borescope Need a Video Camera?| Video Borescope’s Advantages
One of the best optical devices ever created for remote inspection is the borescope, which is consist of a flexible tube with an eyepiece at the other end. The first end is the home for an objective lens and both of these lenses are linked by a relay optical system. Borescopes are widely used during inspections of areas inside an engine or equipment where it is impossible to reach without opening it. Borescopes are either rigid or flexible in which both have their own applications. According to experience and certain uses, rigid borescopes gives better image quality than flexible ones. The only drawback is the inspection of areas where there are bends that should be inspected. Rigid borescopes are widely used in engine cylinders, hydraulic manifolds bodies, and sometimes fuel injectors.
All borescopes gives the same idea and application of giving a complete data on a certain object by discovering the problem inside of it. These inspections are done without having to dismantle the entire engine. You can just imagine how much time you can save inspecting very complicated equipment like the aircraft engine. You can use a flexible borescope which can maneuver in difficult shapes and bends inside of it.
In addition to its flexibility, you can magnify the image of your inspected material to several levels. A coupler lens is also a great addition to borescopes so that you can connect it to a digital camera or a computer. Doing this can let you save images and record videos which can then be used to analyze the problem in the future.
So does a borescope really need a video camera? The answer is yes. For this application, videos are being created in order for technicians and engineers to get a perfect view of the problem inside the equipment. Most video-capable borescopes have their own CCD (charge-coupled devices) inside of them which converts images and videos into digital format which can then be saved in a computer or a digital camera. This CCD is placed at the tip of the scope. It was in 2002 when the first video-capable borescope is introduced. This is the fifth generation of the digital video borescope family. These models have their own fast digital connection such as USB (Universal Serial Bus) so that you can easily let it communicate with a computer for data storage and viewing. Some of them have their own storage media as well.
Video borescopes enables the user to magnify views in higher levels and even getting into longer areas inside analyzed equipment. This is a very great advantage over a rigid, dark, and straight borescope optical image. It also gives a huge advantage on the part of the user's vision because all he has to do is to watch the operation in a monitor. In addition, the inspectors can save data and record videos for future and ongoing tests and these are also capable of giving the user a multispectral imaging which can give the user a full view of the wavelengths being made.
These borescopes have their own capabilities and problems when you are connecting them to the digital camera, special features like the exposure and autofocus might not work great when connected but it can work properly with certain settings and upgrades. Before you make a borescope purchase, always test and ask if it can perform your needed applications. Some cameras are adapting the focus and light of a borescope so you can't fully control it to get your desired image and video, while some are using their own imaging and adjusting capabilities controlling all of the flow. To reach your goal of getting the perfect results for analysis and evaluation, you should also choose the best compatible digital camera.
Borescopes are breakthroughs of modern analysis and troubleshooting. With the growing number of complicated engines and equipment which are subjects for inspection, you are sure that you can have the best view for your own evaluation if you have a video camera with your borescope.
How important is Borescope’s Flexibility?
The flexible borescope is an attractive instrument. This can be used as practical instrument for inspection. A borescope has an optical lens that projects the picture through a flexible tube via fiber optic fibers. An eyepiece can view the image portrayed by the optical lens.
The tube pf borescope is very flexible and it connects the optical lens with eyepiece. Length of flexible tube is different for different types of borescopes. A borescope may have a long flexible tube of more then 100 feet. This flexibility is very important because without this flexibility, you cannot view the hidden areas. Flexibility makes the borescope an effective tool for several applications.
Flexibility of the borescope must be measured. Before buying a borescope, you should think that how you can move the tip of borescope toward your desired direction. According to flexibility, there are two major types of borescope.
2-way articulated borescopes: 2-way articulated borescopes have tip, which can be moved from left to right
4-way articulated borescopes 4-way articulated borescopes have tip, which can be moved up and down, as well as from right to left.
The importance of the Borescope’s Flexibility can be identified by the following applications.
Flexibility of borescope plays an important role in airplane engine maintenance because airplanes have large turbines. The interior machinery of these turbines is unreachable. Human hands cannot approach the unreachable parts of airplane turbine. A borescope can solve this problem. Due to the flexibility of the borescope, the inside parts of aircraft can be inspected. Flexible borescope is very valuable for inspection of complicated mechanical engines and turbines.
Automobile mechanics operate borescopes to examine the interior ignition cylinders inside the engines. Due to efficient use of flexible borescope, mechanics are able to diagnose troubles accurately and easily.
Automobile manufacturers use this borescope to inspect machined parts faults. Manufacturers want to deliver best quality products to customer. Assembly line machinery problems are also checked by using flexible borescopes. Down time on the production assembly line can be reduced by using borescope for detecting the fault.
Inadequate structural integrity in buildings can be detected by using flexible borescope. The construction industry uses flexible borescopes extensively. A building must be inspected with a flexible borescope in order to avoid any disaster.
Water and drain lines are being inspected by borescopes. Flexible borescope can be used to uncover the problem instead of digging up the line.
Borescope is being used by scientists to study creatures or animals in difficult to reach places. Animals living in holes can be examined and evaluated with a flexible borescope. The small flexible borescope will not disturb the animals. Scientists are capable now to observe the animal in an ordinary and natural atmosphere.
Botanical research is easy now because the hidden or unreachable areas of plant and animal are visible to researchers. They can view the activities under rocks and plants on the jungle floor. Botanical research is taking full advantage of borescope use.
The flexibility is the most imperative aspect of borescopes. The aforementioned applications prove the importance of flexible borescopes and their flexible feature.
General Information About Rigid Borescopes
Borescopes are a must in any inspection type of job, where certain physical characteristics (size, surface condition) must be examined. A borescope allows the person to view a magnifying image of a remote object. Here is how it works. This optical device consists of a rigid or flexible tube with an eyepiece on one end, an objective lens on the other linked together by a relay optical system in between, which is surrounded by optical fibers that illuminate the remote object. But this is not how things always used to be. Initially, the technology was quite different. Prior to 1960, borescopes used hot and often dangerous incandescent lamps at the distal (working) end.
Today's advanced borescopes use fiber optic illumination in the scope body and can connect either directly with portable LED Light Sources or stand-alone XENON, Metal Halide or Halogen light sources for portable operation or the brighter wall powered light sources. Some of the more popular brands that produce borescopes are Hawkeye, Karl Storz, Olympus, Richard Wolf.
With the help of a borescope, you can get a clear view at something that is otherwise inaccessible. Bore scopes can be either a rigid (industrial endoscope) or flexible (fibrescope, flexible borescope).
Flexible borescopes also are called Fiberscopes - because their relay optical system that transfer image consist of thousands of tiny fibers (fiber optic image bundle). Rigid borescopes (bore scope) are like fiberscopes, but aren't flexible and a produce an image of higher quality, which makes them more suitable for tasks such as inspecting automotive cylinders, fuel injectors, hydraulic manifold bodies. Rigid or flexible borescopes may be fitted with a magnifying device and a way to illuminate the work being inspected, usually illumination fibers contained in the insertion tube of the borescope. The eyepiece may be fitted with a coupler lens to allow the borescope to be used with imaging devices such as a video or CCD camera, so called borescope viewer. Furthermore, borescopes can be used for rifle inspection and precision shooting as well.
With a borescope, you as a viewer can look from every available corner and hard to reach areas as well as inspect object from different angles, by manipulating a tip of the fiberscope and pass along the corners. Currently, 1,2 or 4 way articulation fiberscopes are made. Rotate it in a given direction and you will get a 360 degree view.
This type of tool will save you a lot of time, because with it, you won't have to dismantle the object, instead you can do a close-up interior inspections using the borescope.
Log In
Archives
- July 2011 (1)
- September 2010 (15)
- August 2010 (23)
- July 2010 (1)
- April 2010 (2)
- March 2010 (4)
Calendar
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Jul | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
Latest Products by Borescope IT Inc
Categories
- Articles (43)
- Industry News (8)
- Off Topic Posts (1)
- Products Reviews (2)