Differences Between Rigid, Flexible and Video Industrial Endoscope

Industrial endoscope is currently widely used in the field of industrial manufacturing and maintenance of a nondestructive testing equipment, it extends the visual distance of the human eye, breaking through the blind angle of human eye observation, can accurately and clearly observe the internal machine equipment or parts of the inner surface of the situation.

Such as wear damage, surface cracks and abnormal attachments, etc., avoid unnecessary equipment decomposition, disassembly and possible parts damage in the inspection process, with easy operation, high inspection efficiency, objective and accurate results, is a powerful tool for production process control and quality control. In the following, ATO industrial automation will introduce something about the differences of these endoscopes.

At present, the commonly used industrial endoscope has rigid endoscope, flexible endoscope, electronic video endoscope three kinds, the basic configuration includes: An endoscope, a light source, a optical cable, the basic principle is the use of optical system will be detected object imaging, and then the transmission system transmission, in order to facilitate the human eye directly observe or display on the display, so as to obtain the required information. But the three have their own characteristics and common occasions, their characteristics are compared as follows:

• Rigid Endoscope. The lighting system is an independent cold light source, and the optical fiber transmits light. Image transmission through lens group; Human eye observation; Diameter 1-20mm, length 50-1000mm. It is used for the inspection of body structure and inner cavity of parts.
• Flexible Endoscope. The lighting system is an independent cold light source, and the optical fiber transmits light. Image transmission through optical fiber; Human eye observation; Diameter 0.6-12mm, length 5-6000mm. The main body can be bent, the effective working length is long, can be used for pipeline detection or large equipment cavity inspection.
• Video Endoscope. The lighting system is an independent cold light source, and the optical fiber transmits light. Image transmission by electronic signal transmission line; CRT monitor observation; Diameter 6-20mm, length 2-30m. The main body is soft and widely used.

Rigid endoscope has different visual orientation and field of vision can be selected according to the work requirements. When the object detection needs different visual orientation, such as 0°, 90° and 120°, the ideal visual angle can be obtained by changing the different probe with fixed visual orientation or using the rotary prism endoscope by adjusting the axial rotation of the prism.

The flexible endoscope controls the bending direction of the probe through the guiding mechanism, and can obtain one-way, two-way or even up, down, left and right directions in the same plane, thus combining any observation Angle to achieve 360° panoramic observation.

The electronic video endoscope is formed in the electronic imaging technology based on the development of, represents the highest form of borescope, both rigid and flexible endoscope technical performance, high image quality, and the image displayed on the CRT monitor, reduce the burden of the human eye, to many people at the same time observation, make the inspection result is more objective and accurate.