Instrument Development:
- Modeling for Design and Evaluation of Optical Instrumentation
- Diode Laser Gas Sensors
- IR Gas-correlation Sensors (R&D-100 Award Winner)
- Raman Hydrogen Sensors
- RPV System for Trace Species Monitoring
- Gas Turbine Engine Diagnostics
Gas Correlation Sensors
Infrared Sensors for CO, HCl, and Other Gases
SSI's TACOS family of infrared (IR) gas-correlation sensors makes use of patented, award-winning IRMOLL lamp technology to detect low concentrations of normally difficult-to-measure gas species with excellent selectivity and time response. Applications include industrial process streams and environmental monitoring.
TACOS Carbon
Monoxide Sensor
Sensitive Detection of Carbon Monoxide
Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a colorless and odorless gas that is toxic at concentrations of tens of ppm . At lower concentrations, it is usually not dangerous but may indicate a system problem such as a leak in an exhaust system, an inadequate air purification system, or the early stages of a fire.
TACOS (Trace Atmospheric Carbon Monoxide Sensor) is a compact, rugged IR sensor system for continuously monitoring the atmosphere for CO at concentrations as low as 1 ppm. Originally developed for NASA's space vehicles, TACOS can be used in:
- aircraft
- submersible vehicles
- industrial process equipment
- environmental chambers, and
- environmental monitoring.
Benefits of TACOS include:
- quantitative analysis down to 1 ppm (TACOS is among the only commercially available devices for low concentration CO detection)
- accuracy: 0 - 100 ppm to 1 ppm, 100 - 10,000 ppm to 1% of reading
- ideal for continuous monitoring
- fast response (2 seconds or less)
- can be adapted to warning systems
- customizable to specific applications
- no tapes or chemicals, and
- minimal maintenance.
Sensor Technology for Industrial and Environmental Monitoring
TACOS makes use of Spectral Sciences' patented IRMOLL line lamp technology. This species-selective technique, an R&D 100 Award winner in 1989, makes use of a lamp filled with the gas species to be detected. Heating the lamp generates a beam of infrared light which is spectrally matched to that gas. As the beam passes through an environment containing the gas species of interest, the beam is attenuated in proportion to the amount of gas present.
Sensing systems using these lamps have been built by SSI for HCl as well as CO, and concentrations of HCl as low as 0.1 ppm have been reproducibly detected. Sensors can be developed for other gases with strong spectral lines in the mid-infrared, including HBr, HI, HCN, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and small hydrocarbons such as acetylene, methane, and formaldehyde. These systems can be configured to detect multiple gas species, and any one device can be modified to detect another gas with the replacement of the lamp and spectral filters.