IndustryEnvironment and cleanliness
CAM-344
Flame and black smoke on the transformer
Almost midday. At the top of the transformer, level with the bushings, there is live orange flame, and out of it rises a column of black smoke that goes straight up and disappears over the rooftops of the neighbourhood. The rest of the yard is untouched: the disconnectors clean, the control house shut, the gate shut and not one person inside the fence. The site is on its own and the fire is under way fifty metres from the houses.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS is
IRIS watches the plant for you.
IRIS looks at the cameras you already have on the plant floor and understands what it sees: a stopped line, someone inside a robotic cell, someone without their safety gear on, jammed parts. When something like that happens, it alerts right away; and whatever can be counted, it counts in numbers. All day long, with no one needing to watch the screen.
You tell it what you need to watch, and IRIS does it.
Here, for example, IRIS sees the flame and the black smoke on the transformer the moment they start, and it sends an alert with the photo, the exact time and which unit it is. With that, the control room can tell the fire crew over the phone while the truck is still on the way, instead of waiting for someone to spot it from a distance. And with a thermal camera, it can warn even earlier, while the part is only heating up.
Works with the cameras you already have. Nothing to replace.
A person replies, not a form.
- Your footage never leaves your premises.
- It doesn't identify people.
- Certifications →
What IRIS understands
What it recognises in this scene
- flame at the top of the transformer
- column of black smoke
- power transformer
- yard disconnectors
- control house
- main gate, shut
What this camera measures
An alert says something is happening. The reading says how much.
- 25 sFlame visible for
- 1Points of flame in view
- 0People inside the compound
- 14Homes in frame
- 0Access points open for the fire service
- 11:52Time 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
flame or smoke appears on the transformer or on any equipment in the yard
Then
- alert the control room with the camera, the machine affected and the time it started
- keep the video from one minute before the first smoke
- open the live view of the camera for whoever coordinates with the fire service
The instruction that set it up«Tell me the moment there is smoke or flame on any machine in the yard, even with nobody there.»
What changes
What changes for whoever answers for the plant
The fire crew calls on the way and the first thing they ask is where to get in and which machine is burning. A transformer on fire in the middle of a neighbourhood means smoke over the houses and a street to close. This camera puts out nothing: it gives the control room the picture, the exact minute it started and which machine it is, so it can be said on the phone while the engine is still on its way. With a thermal camera you can go earlier still, because it reads the heating that shows from outside when there is not even smoke yet. That turns a four in the morning breakdown into scheduled work.
What people usually ask
Can it warn before there is any flame?
Yes, if the camera is a thermal one. IRIS works with the cameras already installed. With a normal camera it sees what can be seen: smoke, flame, a visible change. With a thermal camera it reads heat, because in that image heat is the image, and it can point at a connection or a bushing that is heating up while there is still no smoke. What it does not do, in either case, is replace the machine's electrical protection or promise degrees.
Doesn't the transformer's own protection already detect this?
Yes, and the camera does not compete with it. The protection acts on the machine, and that is its job; IRIS operates nothing. What the protection does not give you is the picture: what can be seen from outside, where the smoke is going, whether the fire has spread to something else, whether there is anyone inside the compound and where the fire crew can get in. None of that is in any relay, and it is exactly what the person picking up the phone needs.
Does IRIS trigger the extinguishing system or cut the supply?
No. IRIS does not act: it does not trigger extinguishing systems, does not open or close anything and does not leave any installation dead. It reports what is happening, right away, with the picture and the time, and there its job ends. Deciding what gets switched and in what order is the control room's call, following its own procedures, and putting the fire out is the fire service's. A camera making decisions on its own about a high-voltage machine would be a problem, not an improvement.
Other cameras
- CAM-340 · Someone is walking through a compound that is always empty
- CAM-341 · The fence is down and someone is coming through the gap
- CAM-342 · Eleven minutes parked where nobody ever stops
- CAM-343 · A cabinet is being emptied of its copper
- CAM-345 · A trail of oil under the transformer
- CAM-346 · The flash nobody was there to see
The real interface, step by step
Watch what happens. Then watch what IRIS does with it.
Not a recorded video and not a drawing: it is a summary of the real tool, with a different case each time round. The whole tool does not fit in a box.
- The alert fires
- You open it
- You confirm or dismiss
See it somewhere else
Who sees the sales that never reach the till?
10 cases: 4 raise an alert when something happens and 6 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
Who is watching when the load swings over somebody?
11 cases: 9 raise an alert when something happens and 2 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
And the best part
You can ask which van came in yesterday.Who was inside is not a question you ask here.
IRIS searches for things and situations, not people: it identifies nobody and recognises no faces. You write what you are looking for and it returns the matching minutes.
Tell us your problem and we will say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
We reply the same working day.