Unlike traditional high-speed framing cameras the optical design of the SIM-16 provides the choice of four, six, eight, or 16 separate optical channels without comprising performance or image quality
Specialised Imaging has recently delivered the world's first 16 channel camera capable of capturing images at 200,000,000 frames per second with gating down to 5ns to the UK's EPSRC Engineering Instrument Pool, which is run for the EPSRC by the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Didcot in Oxfordshire.
The pool loans high specification instruments to UK university-based researchers to perform leading edge research where the ultimate image resolution and speed are required.
Adrian Walker, manager of the Engineering Instrument Pool at the STFC, said: "initial experiments using the new SIM-16 ultra-fast framing camera by the material science department at the University of Oxford have produced some exciting results.
"Other leading UK research groups are now lining up to gain access to the SIM-16 to address imaging challenges in applications including plasma physics and effects of cavitation in turbines".
Originally introduced in 2006 the expanding SIM framing camera range has generated considerable interest in industrial and academic research groups around the world.
Applications for ultra high speed multiple framing cameras include material studies (impact mechanics, crack propagation, impact deformation), automotive (combustion research), aerospace (stress failure, aerodynamic performance), high voltage electrical discharge research, plasma display studies and microdevices (dynamics of operation).
Wai Chan, managing director of Specialised Imaging, commented: "The new SIM-16 framing camera was designed to extend the analytical gathering capacity of high-speed data from ultra fast events.
"Our system uniquely is able to eliminate effects such as parallax and shading, inherent in other designs, and the high spatial resolution (> 50lp/mm) is the same frame to frame and in both axes.
"We have also overcome simultaneous high-speed image capture problems by incorporating an optical port into the primary beamsplitter to which various secondary recording instrumentation can be interfaced.
"The SIM optical port framing camera not only enables direct interfacing with high-speed video, a streak camera or a time resolved spectrometer but also offers the added advantage that the secondary recording is made from the same optical viewpoint as the ultra fast discrete image sequence".
The SIM-16 takes takes the capture of images for accurate, high-speed spatial analysis of fast transient events to a new level.
Unlike traditional high-speed framing cameras the unique optical design of the SIM provides the choice of four, six, eight, or even 16 separate optical channels without comprising performance or image quality.
An integral TFT monitor allows users to 'see what the camera sees' in real-time, thus allowing users to easily optimise focus and lighting to achieve spectacular results.
Optional fibre optic communications are available when the camera is used in electrically -noisy environments.
Comprehensive operational software provides simple control of imaging parameters and extensive measurement tools to accurately analyse results.
Image archiving in a wide range of industry standard file formats is supported.
