Safety first: DAPONA AG integrates Hikvision cameras to protect industrial sites and optimize productivity

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Industrial sites are naturally concerned about the threats of fire, flood, and mechanical failures. To guard against these threats, the Swiss software company, DAPONA AG, partnered with Hikvision to incorporate intelligent thermal cameras into their real-time condition monitoring solution. Hikvision spoke to the company’s CTO and co-founder, Alexander Fritz, to find out more.

Alexander Fritz, Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder, DAPONA AG.

Q: Could you please tell us about your company, DAPONA AG?

A: When we started in 2016, we offered a single smart tool for monitoring industrial shop floors. Just two years later, we rebranded—to become DAPONA —with a new holistic vision focused on reducing the environmental risks in industrial buildings using multiple sensors and cameras. Since then, we’ve grown organically providing solutions to customers—particularly sawmills and wood processing companies—in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.

Q: What is real-time condition monitoring and why is it so important for your customers?

A: Most of our customers own sawmills or wood processing companies where the risk of fire is very real. Piles of sawdust can overheat, as can many parts of the machinery that is often used in sawmills such as bearings, gearboxes, and electric control cabinets. The good news is that, before smoke and flames begin, such fires tend to start slowly with a gradual build-up of heat in a specific area. The ultimate aim of condition monitoring, then, is to identify such problems before they become critical so that measures can be taken to mitigate the risk and avert disaster.

Q: Can you tell us about your holistic solution?

A: We provide a simple and intuitive cloud-based system for creating graphical dashboards to display data from multiple types of sensors in real-time. These holistic dashboards can be viewed on multiple different devices such as a computer or a mobile device. The system can also issue alerts when a sensor detects that something is outside of a pre-configured range. These could be when the temperature inside a cabinet gets too high, or when smoke or water is detected. Escalation logic can be used to alter the response according to the perceived seriousness of the situation. What’s more, the alerts can be used to trigger external devices such as turning on lights or automatically alerting a security service.

Q: How important is it that your system is easy to use?

A: This is very important for our customers, most of whom don’twant to interact with the devices. Instead, they want a solution that will reassure them that everything is running fine or alert them to potential dangers as soon as possible.

They also want an all-in-one solution which is tailored for their individual circumstances. For example, they may want Hikvision thermal cameras for large-scale monitoring, but they might also benefit from using specialist temperature, humidity or air-quality sensors in particular areas such as within an electric cabinet. Our solution provides a very simple way to install and customise the complete system with the full range of condition monitoring sensors without any complicated programming.

Q: How do Hikvision cameras fit into your solution?

A: We can use outputs from most of the range, but Hikvision’s thermal cameras are particularly useful for detecting temperature deviations. This is critical in fire prevention, but it is also used to identify overheated areas and invisible defects in machinery or electrical systems that could indicate a potential problem. We often use them to monitor areas that are difficult to reach with conventional measuring tools.

Q: Why did you decide to partner with Hikvision, and their thermal cameras in particular?

A: In the beginning, one particular customer asked if we could integrate Hikvision thermal cameras into the solution we were building for them, because they already had them installed for general security reasons. When we looked at the hardware and the company, we could immediately see the benefit of a collaboration. After all, the Hikvision products are well-proven and extremely reliable.

We have since discovered that the partnership is very reassuring for many customers, particularly those who already use Hikvision equipment. Particularly impressive is the ongoing support that we receive from the Hikvision technical team. Both we and our customers have a dedicated point of contact in case we need their support at any time.

Q: How did you integrate Hikvision cameras into the DAPONA solution?

A: It’s very simple: we take the outputs directly from the cameras using Hikvision’s Alarm Server feature. With great documentation and bespoke support from the technical team in the Hikvision headquarters, the integration process was very straightforward. In the near future, we will also be using third party iThermAI software to detect smoke and fires. This solution, which runs on Hikvision HEOP cameras, will communicate directly with our server.

Q: Do you have any final thoughts?

A: As a company we are dedicated to providing a holistic solution for our customers using the very best technologies available. Hikvision’s intelligent thermal cameras certainly fit that description and have rapidly become a key element in most of the installations that we provide. I am delighted to say that the result is a collaboration that is significantly reducing the risks of fire and mechanical failure for an increasing number of our customers.