The 1,360 km-long Tisza is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It originates in Ukraine, flows partially along the Romanian border, passes through Hungary touching the border with Slovakia, and falls into the Danube in Serbia. The Tisza drains an area of about 157,000 sq km.

Flooding has been and still remains a permanent danger; the Tisza has many curves and turns as it flows through one of the largest flat areas in Europe. And over the past years, its water levels have become more often critical, a development which could be attributed to the climate change. In Hungary, local authorities started as early as 1846 to build what has now become the largest flood protection system in Europe. The river is sided by an extensive network of pumping stations, which are used to divert the surplus water from the river into canals and water reservoirs or artificial lakes. These pumping stations play a vital role in flood protection and they require appropriate inspection and maintenance.

The Directorate for Environmental Protection and Water Management of the Lower Tisza District, which oversees the river basin in that southern Hungarian area, saw the need for a monitoring of its pumping infrastructure and decided to invest in a professional infrared camera, the only reliable non-contact instrument which is able to scan and visualize entire surfaces of machinery and electrical equipment quickly and accurately. They purchased a ThermaCAM P65 at Grimas Kft., the distributor of FLIR Systems in Hungary who also took care of the technical aspects and customer training.

The infrared camera played an important role during the severe floods in spring 2006, which broke previous Tisza water level records. “Thanks to a continuous monitoring with the infrared camera, the more than one hundred pump stations in our district did not fail during that critical period”, says Peter Kozak, Manager at the Lower Tisza Water Management Directorate. A sudden breakdown of a pumping station would not only enlarge the flooded area; hydraulic pressure, caused by the high water level, would badly damage the infrastructure on the dykes as well.

Luckily, Kozak’s colleague, Karoly Fiala, started to systematically inspect all mechanical and electrical installations of the area before the severe flooding.
“Before using the thermal camera, we used to check every single item by hand”. This was time consuming and quite risky. And we were not able to examine the stations during operation.”

“The ThermaCAM P65 is a truly professional camera which allows to work easily and quickly”, says Fiala. “We made hundreds of images. And the faults we found were repaired according to their priority.” Problems spotted were:
• Overheated connections and fuse problems
• Overloaded electronic cables
• Operation problems in the condenser, contact problems.
• Overheating of pumping station machinery due to insufficient cooling in continuous operation etc.

Moreover, the thermal camera, combined with the expertise of the inspector, allowed to precisely indicate which of the parts had to be replaced – a substantial asset, at prices of more than EUR 400 for a specific fuse and some thousand of these fuses in operation.

“Without thermography, the inspection and maintenance of the pumping stations and other infrastructure during operation would be complicated, risky and difficult” concludes Grimas manager Csaba Wesser, who provided training and support and guided the two engineers through their first inspection rounds. Meanwhile, the Lower Tisza Directorate has set up a continuous monitoring scheme of the pumping stations. Tisza floods endanger up to a quarter of the surface of Hungary, an area of approx. 23,500 sq km, where 20% of the population live and work. Ongoing climate change will make a consistent maintenance of the flood prevention infrastructure even more vital.

About Infrared Thermography
Thermal imaging, also called thermography, is the production of non-contact infrared or “heat” pictures from which temperature measurements can be made. Portable infrared cameras scan equipment and structures, then instantly convert the thermal images into pictures in a JPEG format for monitoring and analysis. Thermal imaging increases efficiency and maximizes safety in many industries and environments and is rapidly expanding into new markets.

About FLIR Systems
FLIR Systems is the world leader in the design and manufacturing of infrared cameras. The company has over 40 years of experience and more than 50,000 infrared cameras currently in use worldwide for applications including predictive maintenance, research & development, process monitoring, automation and many others. FLIR Systems has four manufacturing plants located in the USA and Sweden and operates direct sales offices in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, China, Japan and Australia. The company numbers over 1,300 dedicated infrared specialists, and serves international markets through a network of 60 regional offices providing sales and support functions.