IndustryInfrastructure integrity
CAM-308
A white cloud and a flame at the pump skid
Mid-afternoon in the pump yard. A white cloud is coming off the skid under the blue canopy and crossing the yard at ground level, and between the two pumps there’s an orange flame. An operator in an orange vest has stopped in front of it and is calling on the radio; another runs past with an extinguisher. IRIS sees the cloud and sees the flame, and times it from the first second. It doesn’t say which substance it’s or how much: that’s measured by the gas detector, and with no detector there’s no measurement.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS understands
What it recognizes in this scene
- white cloud coming off the skid
- flame on the pump line
- operator running with an extinguisher
- operator calling it in on the radio
- drums in the containment next to it
What this camera measures
An alert says something’s happening. The reading says how much.
- 1 minTime since the cloud appeared
- 4People in the yard
- 1Extinguishers taken off the bracket
- 10Drums in the yard
- 14:53Time of the alert
The figures on this screen are an example from the illustration, not any client’s measurement.
The rule
You decide once. IRIS applies it always.
If
a cloud, smoke or a flame appears in the pump yard
Then
- alert the control room with the camera, the spot and the time
- save the video from one minute before the cloud appeared
- open the view from the neighboring cameras in the same yard
The instruction that set it up«Tell me as soon as smoke, a cloud or fire shows up anywhere in the pump yard.»
What changes
What changes for whoever answers for the plant
Twenty to five, and the radio crackles in the control room: “something is happening at the pumps.” The first seconds of a release go on confirming that it’s really happening and on explaining where. With the camera, the person in the room sees the image, the point and the time without getting out of the chair, and can send people to the right side of the wind. Afterward there’s video of the previous minute, which is what you look at to know what was being done when it started. IRIS cuts nothing off: a person decides that.
What people usually ask
Does IRIS say which gas has escaped and at what concentration?
No, and this is the most important line on the whole page. IRIS sees a cloud, sees smoke and sees flame, and reports with the camera, the spot and the time. It does not identify the substance and does not measure the concentration: that is what the gas detector does, and where there is no detector there is no measurement. The two go together: the detector says how much there’s at its point, the camera shows where it comes from, where it’s going and who is nearby.
Does it see a leak that’s invisible to the eye?
With an ordinary camera, no. If the gas is colorless, as far as the picture is concerned nothing is happening. With a thermal camera you can read the heat from outside: a line that suddenly goes cold, a hot flange, a cold pool on the floor. And there are dedicated gas-imaging cameras for certain compounds. What doesn’t exist is a camera that gives a concentration: that’s what the detector is for.
Does IRIS trigger the deluge or stop the pumps?
No. IRIS doesn’t act. It reports with the picture, the spot and the time, and the decision is taken by the control room or the emergency lead, with the plant’s own systems. Isolating a line, starting the deluge or calling an evacuation is done by a person or by the safety system, not by the camera. What the camera guarantees is that the decision is taken while looking at what’s happening, not over the phone.
Other cameras
- CAM-300 · The drum arriving at the station isn’t the one on the order
- CAM-301 · Flammables, corrosives and oxidizers in the same containment
- CAM-302 · The tanker hose, coupled to the forbidden manifold
- CAM-303 · The tanker is still connected and nobody’s watching it
- CAM-304 · Two drums with the label torn off in the marked bay
- CAM-305 · The IBC has sagged onto a broken pallet and is dripping on the floor
A different case every time
No extra alarms here. Just what needs looking at.
Not a recorded video, not an explanatory drawing: a summary of the real screen, with a different case every time it starts. There’s a lot more behind it.
- It lands in the tray
- You open it
- You confirm or dismiss
Next step
Who is watching the cameras of a whole branch network?
13 cases: 12 raise an alert when something happens and one only measures. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
How long does it take to find a hand played two hours ago?
12 cases: 9 raise an alert when something happens and 3 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
And the best part
A recollection can’t be checked.A number can, and it comes out the same every day.
The number doesn’t depend on who was on shift or how they remember it. It’s measured the same way every day, and that’s why people counting is approved by the Centro Español de Metrología. That approval is Spanish and it isn’t equivalent to any U.S. certification: we say so up front and not at the end.
Tell us your problem and we’ll say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
A person answers, the same working day.