The world’s smallest EX camera manufactured by R.STAHL Limited has been provided to Airbus Operations Ltd, based in Filton, Bristol. 

Over the several decades spanning the first flight of Concorde to commercial service of the Airbus A380, fuel systems testing at the Airbus Filton site, has proven to be of paramount importance. The dedicated Test Facility is capable of simulating the flight environment within aircraft fuel tanks to enable key fuel system performance characteristics to be determined. Currently, the facility is engaged within a programme of academic research to understand how dissolved air within aviation turbine fuel evolves under the environmental conditions within aircraft fuel tanks during flight. Key to the research is the need to view in real-time the dynamic behaviour of fuel within a test tank at sub-zero temperatures and low atmospheric pressures.

R.STAHL’s Ex-Cam has proven to be the answer to this long-standing problem of recording video footage within fuel tanks and test chambers where low temperatures, pressures and flammable atmospheres predominate. Adam Harris of Airbus says “the Ex-cam has enabled hundreds of hours of footage to be captured from tests within the thermal-altitude test chamber where air temperatures fall to -30°C and the ambient atmospheric pressure is 150 mbar absolute.”

He continues, “due to its compact size the Ex-cam has the advantage of being easy to integrate within the test chamber and its associated systems.”

With a diameter of only 55mm and weighing just 435g, the camera is a much welcomed addition to the vast product range. It can be sold as a single item or as part of a larger solution which is again completely customisable by the R.STAHL manufacturing group; specialists in switchgear, lighting, system solutions and automation equipment for hazardous areas.

Future applications with the Ex-cam within fuel test tank environments are planned.