CAM-418

The thickener is overflowing and the tanker keeps unloading

Midday at the loading and unloading area of the sludge plant. A tanker has parked outside the yellow floor marking and connected the black hose to the thickener pipework. The tank can’t take any more: sludge is spilling over the wall in a brown curtain and spreading across the sidewalk as far as the hose itself. Two workers in hard hats and safety vests watch from a few feet away; one is pointing at the overflow. The pump is still running.

CAM-418 · SLUDGE BAY · TANK OVERFLOWING

What IRIS understands

What it recognizes in this scene

sludge pouring over the tank wall
unloading hose connected
sludge tanker
thickener tank
two workers watching the overflow
sludge spreading across the sidewalk

What this camera measures

An alert says something’s happening. The reading says how much.

4 mintime spent overflowing
2people in the unloading bay
1vehicles in the unloading bay
1hoses connected
12:35time 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.

sludge appears outside the tank during an unload, or the vehicle connects outside the point marked on the floor

Then

opens an alert with the camera, the time and how long it has been overflowing
notifies the operator at the unloading bay and the plant manager
keeps the video from the moment the truck parked up to the first sludge over the wall

The instruction that set it up«Tell me if sludge appears outside the tank during an unload, or if the truck hooks up outside the marked point.»

What changes

What changes for whoever answers for the plant

Two hours of hose and pressure water: that’s what cleaning the apron costs, plus an incident sheet and, if the sludge reaches the gully, a discharge that has to be declared. It almost always starts the same way: the tanker driver connects to the wrong point, or the tank was fuller than the morning sheet said. IRIS alerts as soon as sludge appears where there should be no sludge, with the camera, the time and the video. Stopping the pump is done by a person; the alert only gives them the minutes.

What people usually ask

Does IRIS know how much sludge is in the tank?

It doesn’t measure volume. What it sees is the sludge surface against the top of the wall, which is in the frame, and the exact moment it starts going over. The level comes from the tank probe. IRIS works alongside that probe: when the probe fails or lags, the picture shows the overflow all the same, with the time on it.

Can it tell the right unloading point from the wrong one?

Yes, if the point is marked and visible. The correct bay is drawn once on the image, and IRIS alerts when the vehicle parks or the hose is connected outside that area. It reads no work order and doesn’t know what load the truck is carrying: it compares the position it sees with the area someone drew for it.

Doesn’t the plant’s own system already control this?

Partly, and that’s why IRIS doesn’t replace it. The control system knows levels, flows and commands; what it doesn’t have is the picture of the sidewalk. IRIS adds what can be seen from outside — the sludge going over, where the truck was, who was nearby — and the exact minute. Together the two explain what happened; neither of them explains it fully on its own.

Other cameras

Simulation · how IRIS works

You set the rule once. IRIS applies it every time.

You will see a summary of the interface, played step by step and hands-free. Each round starts with another case. The complete tool doesn’t fit in a demo.