Corona cameras are a valuable tool for power grid inspections and preventive maintenance in various industries. They help identify corona discharges that can negatively impact a power network, and enable safe, non-disruptive inspections. DayCor cameras detect and pinpoint electric corona UV PD emissions from faults on high/medium voltage apparatuses. This helps maintenance teams perform timely and effective preventive maintenance.
Corona Camaras
Corona cameras and detectors are used to pinpoint and direct UV emission caused by partial discharge phenomenon during overhead inspection. They have high sensitivity to locate and reveal faults. The cameras and detectors are available in handheld, vehicle, drone & helicopter-mounted and camera integrated into systems form. They are based on Ofil’s proprietary DayCor technology ensuring accurate detection, recording and display of UV radiation emanated by corona.
Electric corona PD and arcing on metallic hardware is detected by a variety of devices including UHF sensors [19], radio interference voltage and partial discharge detectors (PDD) [20] and spectrophotometers [21]. However, these instruments do not identify the shape of a discharge. DayCor cameras can help to do that, because they are able to capture images of the corona phenomenon during the daytime. They are therefore very useful for HV & MV equipment reliability testing as part of an NDT programme. The results of these tests can be compared with a reference set of data that shows the state of electrical insulation within a circuit.
Viewports
Added the ability to choose to render from a specific Corona camara in any 3ds Max viewport (added to the Viewport Settings and the Corona Camera Tag). This allows you to have different sets of cameras for varying purposes, such as CG and real-time rendering. New spinner that lets you upscale the image rendered in the VFB, for example when using high-dpi displays. You can now right click in the VFB to set a focus point for Depth of Field – this works for both IR and final renders. The new Light Solver is now the default – it significantly improves render times in scenes with lots of sphere lights that occluding the solver.
There are many other improvements such as the ability to run IR in a docked Cinema 4D viewport, object picking and manipulation within IR (including moving the camera view from inside IR), Intel AI denoising that can work on any CPU, the Fisheye projection mode for cameras and Inside Volume Mode for true 3D volumetric materials.
Rendering
Corona is an unbiased renderer that, thanks to its simplicity, allows 3D artists to create stunning visualizations with minimal post-production. This is achieved by using a wide range of tools to create realistic lighting, materials and atmospheres.
Objects and scenes created in other 3D software can be imported with Corona with ease. This includes objects and material from Forest, FumeFX and Phoenix FD. Corona carefully imports them without causing any issues, allowing the 3D artist to work with their preferred tools.
Various post-processing presets can be defined in the Corona Camera and loaded into the VFB. They can also be used as a global setting in Render Setup. In addition, Corona Camera allows setting a focal length to control depth of field. It also has the option to enable focus lock, which locks focusing to a pivot point instead of the camera itself. This can be useful when working with complex lens systems such as spherical VR cameras.
Tools
Corona Camera replaces the native 3ds Max free, target and physical cameras (as well as the Corona Camera Mod modifier). It offers all photographic controls available in the Render Setup / Camera and Post tab of the VFB, including exposure, panorama, VR and tone mapping.
Corona UV cameras are used for overhead inspection of electric corona and arcing partial discharges in high/medium voltage equipment. They help maintenance teams perform ongoing analysis of the technical condition of devices and locate problems before they cause serious damage or dangerous situations.
ULIRvision’s DayCor TD90 is an advanced portable UV imaging system designed for inspection of power lines and other electrical installations. Its high sensitivity allows the detection of electrical discharges on polymer and porcelain insulators, even at a distance. The camera is also used for rail and tram inspections to check insulation for defects that could affect performance. It can be mounted inside small gimbals for use on UAVs. Its light weight and compact dimensions make it an ideal solution for drone mounting.
The Bottom Lines
Corona camara is an open source CPU render engine. This means it doesn’t use instancing like most GPU render engines and so has a pretty low impact on rendering performance. This innovative airborne UV imaging camera detects and pinpoints corona and arcing partial discharge in power lines, HV labs, research institutes and railway. It helps prevent failures in high voltage equipment and save energy production costs.
