If you are in the business of inspecting intricate machinery, chances are the naked eye will not be able to see the tiny intricate parts of the inner working of machinery. You can avoid strain, inaccuracy, and incomplete inspections by simply using a borescope, which is an optical instrument used for inspection work where the area to be inspected is inaccessible by other means.

Borescopes can be rigid, flexible, and semi-rigid-this allows them to access a variety of different spaces and areas. A rigid borescope has an eyepiece on one end and an objective lens on the other linked together by a lens relay system.

Flexible and semi-rigid scopes use fiber optics, instead of traditional lenses, to relay images and transmit light. Borescopes allow users to look inside areas of metal machined parts, castings and welded parts that are not visible with the naked eye.

The importance to manufacturers and quality assurance personnel is fast, nondestructive visual inspection that ensures a part or component is free of burrs, cracks, surface finish irregularities and other imperfections. This keeps your workers safe from injury, and your company safe from lawsuits.

Tube manufacturers frequently use borescopes. Many tube manufacturers use borescopes to look for internal defects in critical piping applications such as drill casings-your eyes cannot look many feet inside a small diameter pipe.

Other applications in manufacturing include looking inside objects such as medical packaging, tires, tubes, pipes and tanks. Explosive environments and large, open areas that can be easily inspected with the naked eye are two situations where borescopes should not be used.

Fiberscopes are more expensive, more fragile and harder to handle than borescopes. The rigid borescope is much more durable, reducing costly repairs.

The two types work a little differently from each other. Rigid borescopes utilize traditional lens relay systems that transmit the image-these lenses are usually assembled inside a rigid stainless steel tube.

Flexible borescopes use fiber optics, which are housed inside a flexible sheath. Flexible scopes have inherently lower resolution because of the fiber optics.

Other specialized borescopes can resist high temperatures, high- or low-pressure situations and harsh chemical environments. There are charge-coupled devices (CCDs) ranging in diameters as small as 3.9 millimeters to 8 millimeters as typical sizes.

Both rigid and flexible borescopes can be fitted with a magnifying device as a way to illuminate the desired area being inspected. Cialis Professional There are multiple types of light sources including, halogen, metal halide and xenon.

Illumination fibers are contained in the borescope’s insertion tube. These light sources really only gain importance in a dark field of view.

The borescope’s field of view affects the image quality. Fields-of-view may be very wide, wide, medium or narrow.

The direction-of-view is the angle from the longitudinal axis through the tip of the borescope. This view is determined by the technician’s requirements.

If the user needs to see a view other than straight forward, they will need an angular viewing borescope such as 90 degrees (perpendicular to the line of site) 65 degrees (forward oblique view to the line of site) or 110 degrees (rear oblique view to the line of site). This will allow the user to see other areas of interest, such as a cross drilled hole to make sure there are no burrs or other contamination in the part.

There is a growing feeling that today’s borescopes could find themselves outdated when compared against more sophisticated, flexible and smaller diameter fiber-optic systems. However many believe that there will always be a need for a rigid borescope system, until they can produce an electronic sensor smaller than three millimeters.

Fiber-optic systems do not give you the necessary resolution like a lens system borescope does. Fiber-optic borescopes cannot produce as high of image quality as rigid borescopes, which use glass-rod lenses instead of fiber-optic bundles.

Also predicted are huge developments with ‘chip on a stick’ technology. As CCD chips shrink in size, there will be more borescopes with no optics-the camera will be in the end of the scope.”

Medical companies are reportedly testing 4 millimeter arthroscopes with a 2.5 millimeter chip. Anticipate continued growth of video and digital capture quality capability at more affordable prices.

Expect to see higher resolution images, smaller diameter scopes with better, more intense light sources stressing portability and recording capability. The borescope continues to perform its delicate function, and develop with the changing times.

Author Bio: Tom Selwick has worked and researched in the engineering industry for the last 14 years. He has written many articles on his findings, especially on the topic of borescopes.

Contact Info:

Tom Selwick

TomSelwick09@gmail.com

http://www.rfsystemlab.us

Category: Technology/Gadgets and Gizmos
Keywords: borescope