The May Technology evening was held at Umhambi lodge on 7 May. The well attended evening was hosted by SICK Automation and Mark Madeley the product manager for ID products delivered the presentation. The topic was on laser technology with emphasis on collision detection, avoidance and warnings systems.
Wilson Maminimini (right) thanks Mark after the presentation.
Mark started out by explaining the laser terminology, which included such terms as scanning range, spot size, measuring frequency, scanning angle, reflectivity of different materials ranging from reflectors giving 400% reflectivity to rubber with the lowest reflectivity. Mark explained that there were two broad categories: Ranging which describes the relative distance between the object and the sensor; and detection, where the sensor searches for the presence of an object in the monitored area.
The different type of laser technologies were also discussed and one of them was the pulse time method where the distance between the sensor and object is calculated by measuring the interval time between the emission of the laser pulse and the pulse being received again. The measuring environment and sensor design were also a big part of the discussion and Mark explained that In order to overcome interference factors like rain, dust and fog, multi-echo technology is employed in some special outdoor sensors.
Lastly Mark looked at some real applications and problems that were solved using the technology, these included port handling applications, anti-collision on cranes, position and layer determination, automatic container positioning, stacker and reclaimer application, mobile vehicles collision warning systems as well as lane departure systems. Guests leant that there was limitless applications for laser technology and that it can use be used to solve many problems.
The next Technology Evening will be held on 4 June and details about the presenter will be communicated as soon as they are confirmed.
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