Hi, I am working on a Tractor Division project in which I have to detect the color of the smoke or detect the opacity through Infrared radiation coming in the furnace where the temperature is about 150 degrees. I need some suggestion suitable sensor which will help to detect the opacity or color of the Smoke while searching out on google I found one Dust and smoke particle sensor but would it actually be worth for the temperature condition I have mentioned earlier.


Any suggestion on this will be really grateful

 

Hi, I am working on a Tractor Division project in which I have to detect the color of the smoke or detect the opacity through Infrared radiation coming in the furnace where the temperature is about 150 degrees. I need some suggestion suitable sensor which will help to detect the opacity or color of the Smoke while searching out on google I found one Dust and smoke particle sensor but would it actually be worth for the temperature condition I have mentioned earlier.


Any suggestion on this will be really grateful

1. Which are you trying to measure: opacity or color? If opacity, in what units should the result be? (e.g. % light transmission at xxx wavelength) If color, how would the color be specified? (e.g. per some regulation that you describe). How will sufficient accuracy be defined?
2. Are you measuring within the furnace or are you measuring air coming into the furnace?
3. Does your measurement need to meet a specific regulation? (Which?)
4. Is operation to be at 150°F or 150°C?
5. Can you say why you are making this measurement? That is, what is the significance of the results? What will be done in response to specific results? (e.g. shut furnace off, alter furnace temperature)
6. Other than temperature, must the sensor be protected in other ways (e.g. mechanical, dust, condensing vapors, etc)?
7. The sensor will be some kind of optical detector, or possibly several (to determine color).
8. Why do you think the dust and smoke particle sensors you link to would be an appropriate solution to your problem? Are you interested in detecting particles or optical data?

 

Hi Varul, you say you need to "detect the opacity through Infrared radiation "...do you mean you have to use the infra red radiation as a way of measuring the smoke? This would be a little problematic as you cannot always be sure the level of radiation will be the same.
The link to your dust / particle detector does not appear to work.
The most obvious method that springs to mind would be to use a partly reverse engineered household smoke detector, and see if you can extract a more analog signal from one. In any case you would probably want some method of continuously drawing off a small amount of the furnace gasses to monitor - ie sucking a small flow of gas past what ever sensor you have, that way you have a more controlled environment and are not dependent on diffusion air currents in the furnace.