DRS Hadland wins $5 million in new contracts

JANUARY 15--DRS Hadland Ltd. (Tring, England; www.drshadland.co.uk) has received new contracts worth $5 million to provide ultrahigh-speed digital imaging systems for a series of scientific, industrial, and military customers around the world. Designed to capture and measure movement down to a nanosecond or less, these cameras will provide analysis of high-speed events for design improvements and enhanced reliability in equipment and process applications.

For these new contracts, the company will produce the Imacon 200 and Ultra range of High-Speed Framing Cameras, Imacon 500 Ultra High-Speed Streak Camera, SVR III Electronic Ballistic Range Camera, as well as the Flight Follower system, used with high-speed cameras for projectile tracking.

Evolving from the technology of the Imacon 468, the Imacon 200 Ultra High-Speed Digital Imaging System provides simultaneous recording of still frames and streak images through a single optical axis. The operational parameters are managed by a dedicated computer that offers fingertip control for reliable image capture and quantitative data analysis. The Imacon 200 has been used for research in space-vehicle atmospheric re-entry, laser ablation of blood clots, the operation of micro devices, low-emission automobile engines, and for various applications in the power industry, among others.

The Imacon 500 streak cameras provide spatial and temporal data information from high-speed transient events in the picosecond range. Information gathered can be translated on film or in digital form via a suitable acquisition device, such as the company's 2-D Image Analysis System. This system has been used primarily for research in laser fusion, photochemistry, semiconductor lasers, fluorescence decay, time-resolved Raman spectroscopy, synchrotron radiation, plasmas, combustion, detonics, and ballistics.