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Measuring Displaced Pipe Joints

Vidsy Pipes detects and measures the three main forms of displacement between adjoining pipe sections:

  • Radial displacement — an offset between the connected pipe sections.
  • Axial displacement — a gap along the pipe axis. Vidsy follows the joint while it is visible and records its minimum and maximum measured gap.
  • Angular displacement — rotational misalignment between the pipe sections. This detection is named Angular rotation in the application.

Together, these detections give inspectors a complete view of pipe-joint alignment instead of treating each direction as a separate manual check.

Position the camera for each measurement​

Radial displacement​

Use a forward-facing view down the pipe and keep the joint in the center of the image.

Axial displacement​

  1. Keep the camera at the center of the pipe.
  2. Rotate the camera towards the pipe wall so that the joint is in the center of the image.
  3. Trace the camera over the joint until the full joint has been seen.

Axial displacement can be logged only after the full joint has been seen. The measurement is therefore logged when the camera looks away from the joint after completing the trace.

Angular displacement​

  1. Keep the camera at the center of the pipe.
  2. Rotate the camera towards the pipe wall so that the joint is in the center of the image.
  3. Trace the camera over the joint.

The largest displacement value is measured where the joint turns the most.

Live and recorded analysis​

The displaced-joint items are pinned in the Dashboard. During live camera analysis, they show current measurements as the joint passes through view. During recording playback, the Dashboard shows the values and events active at the current play position.

Detection events are created when the configured thresholds are reached. Axial-displacement events include the minimum and maximum distance measured across the visible joint trace.

Calibrate axial displacement​

Axial displacement needs a valid calibration to convert image distances into millimeters. Radial and angular displacement do not require this distance calibration. A project can use calibration data supplied by its measurement setup, imported from CAMI, or captured manually.

To create a manual calibration when the Dashboard indicates that one is required:

  1. Click the pixel-to-distance calibration-status indicator on the Size Dashboard item. The indicator is clickable when manual calibration is available.
  2. Click two points on the camera image or recording to draw a line across a known distance.
  3. Enter that real-world distance in Distance (mm).
  4. Click the check button to save the calibration.

For a camera, the calibration is saved with that camera's configuration. For a recording, it is saved with the selected recording. Recording playback pauses while you draw the calibration line. Press Escape or use the close button to cancel without saving.

You can also import a CAMI project to load its referenced recordings and matching calibration data together.