Radian Plus laser tracker on Application of ship lift inspection in hydropower stations

Laser Tracker and hydropower facility construction&operation and Maintenance
There are currently over 600 large and small hydropower stations in China, and laser trackers are used in the installation, construction, and long-term maintenance of a large number of hydropower stations. From the guidance and installation of the stator and rotor to the later maintenance and inspection, accurate and reliable testing data analysis is indispensable. In this case study, we will introduce the application of laser trackers in various stages of ship lift inspection based on the actual operation of API company.
Inspection requirements for ship elevators
The operation and maintenance inspection of ship elevators mainly involves two aspects:
1. After long-term use, there is deformation in the rotation of the gate, which should be regularly inspected and repaired to reduce the failure rate and ensure the normal passage of ships;

2. Displacement detection during the lifting process of the water retaining door panel.

On site environment&equipment adaptation
The difficulty of detecting hydroelectric power station facilities lies in the need for high-precision geometric measurement over a large range and scale; Moreover, due to the special environment in which the hydropower station is located, the humidity is high, and outdoor operations are inevitably affected by dust. Therefore, when selecting measurement equipment, it is necessary for the equipment to have a wide range of measurement capabilities, extremely high measurement accuracy, compactness, portability, and flexible placement. In some applications, the equipment also needs to have certain Automation functions.
Radian Plus Laser Tracker Perfect Fit
The Radian Plus laser tracker from the API brand can fully meet various needs for detecting ship lifts in hydropower stations. The Radian Plus laser tracker has a working radius of over 80 meters and a measurement accuracy of micrometers. It adopts wireless data transmission and long-term battery power supply, and adopts a highly integrated design. The whole machine is compact and flexible, and can be installed in any measurement position in any posture. At the same time, it has a high moisture and dust resistance level, which can fully adapt to the high humidity and dust invasion on-site environment in outdoor operations of hydropower stations.
On site application of ship lift inspection
1. Inspection of coaxiality and flatness of gates
For the inspection of the ship lift gate, it is necessary to measure the coaxiality of the flipped ends in order to monitor the deformation of the bearing seat, check the good or broken state of the shaft through data, and analyze the cause. Simply bring the Radian Plus laser tracker to the vicinity of the test location, turn it on, and start the operation. During detection, the operator holds the SMR tracker target ball with a built-in prism and touches the position to be measured. The laser emitted by the laser tracker locks and tracks the center position of the target ball in real time. After the target ball touches the test point, the 3D data of the position is collected through remote control or automatic means at a rate of 1000 points/second, and immediately sent to the Measurement Software stored in the laptop for subsequent analysis.

2. Detection of straightness of ship lift
In the detection of the straightness of the ship lift, it is required not to manually hold the target ball for measurement. In this case, a tracker can be used to automatically track the target ball for measurement. The target ball can be fixed at a certain position in the motion mechanism of the ship lift, and according to actual needs, "scanning measurement" (trajectory measurement) can be used, Or "stable point measurement" (setting a stable time, when the mobile mechanism stops and reaches this time node, the tracker automatically collects data for measurement. After the data collection is completed, the mobile mechanism moves to the next point for dwell measurement until the entire measurement process is completed) to complete the automatic data collection operation.
Please refer to the illustrations and some data reports on the coaxiality and flatness detection of the gate in the following practical operations:
conclusion
The Radian Plus laser tracker, with its wide range, high precision, flexible portability, wireless operation, moisture-proof and dust-proof working characteristics, perfectly meets the technical requirements of various stages of ship lift inspection in hydropower stations, providing reliable data guarantee for the inspection and maintenance of ship lifts.
After measuring the position coordinates of each spatial point, these points can be used in software to synthesize lines, surfaces, and bodies, and analyze the geometric relationships of each position. They can also be compared with theoretical mathematical models to achieve the purpose of detection.
Please refer to the illustrations and some data reports on the coaxiality and flatness detection of the gate in the following practical operations: