Skip to main content

Hot spot detector prevents road tunnel fires

Sick’s new hot spot detector system proved its worth only one week after being installed by preventing a fire in the Karawanks Tunnel, Austria. A semi-trailer truck with a wheel temperature exceeding 200 degrees centigrade triggered the alarm as it passed the hot spot detector. Closer inspection indicated that in addition to the overheated brake, the vehicle was also travelling with two cracked brake discs. Developed by Sick’s Swiss subsidiary ECTN and based on the Sick LMS511 laser sensor with the T
December 9, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
536 Sick’s new hot spot detector system proved its worth only one week after being installed by preventing a fire in the Karawanks Tunnel, Austria.   A semi-trailer truck with a wheel temperature exceeding 200 degrees centigrade triggered the alarm as it passed the hot spot detector.  Closer inspection indicated that in addition to the overheated brake, the vehicle was also travelling with two cracked brake discs.

Developed by Sick’s Swiss subsidiary 535 ECTN and based on the Sick LMS511 laser sensor with the TIC 102 profiling system and integrated with thermal imaging cameras, the device detects potentially dangerous situations in free-flow traffic so a suspect vehicle can be diverted before entering the tunnel.

Every vehicle greater than 7.5 tons is guided into the lane where the Hot Spot detector is sited before entering the tunnel. Here, while the vehicle is moving freely, the laser sensor measures it in 3Dm while thermal imaging cameras create a thermal profile.

The combined 3D thermal image is assessed against one of 28 categories, which each have the approved thermal thresholds for specific parts in locations appropriate to that class, including exhaust system, load, brakes, wheel bearings, engine etc.  Any significant deviation from a normal temperature will alert the tunnel police who can pull the vehicle over and implement a thorough inspection.

The all-weather IP66 protected detector operates in all weather environments and  is able to detect potentially dangerous overheating on chassis or cargo in virtually any type of vehicle, from buses and low loaders to high sided trucks and tankers.

“Some of the most calamitous disasters have happened on major highways, where a vehicle fire has trapped people in a tunnel, subject to heat and poisonous smoke, with great difficulty in escaping,” comments Gary Young, Sick (UK) traffic management segment manager.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Mobile CCTV with video analytics
    April 26, 2013
    Designed to cope with difficult terrain and weather conditions, Vital Technology’s Xtend is a mobile rapid deployment CCTV and onboard video analytics tower system which provides surveillance and intelligent scene analysis at locations that are vulnerable to theft, trespass and vandalism. The ruggedised solution incorporates a hydraulic mast and a 360-degree rotation tower housed in a trailer base unit with an environmentally-friendly 3000 rpm generator.
  • Allied Vision Technologies unveils expanded Prosilica camera range
    February 28, 2013
    Allied Vision Technologies has expanded its compact Prosilica GT digital camera range to include five new high-resolution models from 9.2 to 29 megapixels. Designed for imaging in extreme tem­peratures from –20 to +65 degrees centi­grade and fluctuating lighting conditions, Prosilica GT cameras feature precise and DC auto iris, as well as Power over Ethernet (PoE) and the latest CCD sensor technology, making them suited to a wide range of appli­cations including intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and
  • Urban tunnel replaces viaduct, improves safety
    October 10, 2012
    Earthquake sensors, automatic barriers and real time monitoring systems are all part of a scheme to make a major Seattle traffic artery safer, by taking it underground. Huw Williams reports. Seattle’s metropolitan area of 3.5 million people, like much of the western seaboard of the United States, lies in an earthquake zone. In Seattle’s case, the city and its hinterland sit atop a complex network of interrelated active geological faults capable of severe seismic activity and posing complex considerations fo
  • Transportation’s electrifying future
    August 1, 2023
    Climbing out of our silos will be vital to create the frameworks and networks needed to decarbonise transport, if we are serious about mitigating climate change, says Colin Sowman