At speeds as fast as 70mph, Deck Top Scanning System (DTSS) simultaneously captures infrared thermography and high definition visual datasets. This combination of IR cameras and line cameras forms a dual imagery that supplements and validates each other, allowing for rapid processing and delivery of accurate results. Thus, Nexco's system facilitates users to scan a multitude of bridge decks, roads, and other concrete surfaces that require significant celerity and a higher rate of accuracy and detail.

Our President & CEO, Masato Matsumoto, was the lead author on a technical paper which compares different thermal cameras used to analyze bridge decks; this study found that the use of a cooled camera model minimizes false positives and blurry imaging. The development of NEXCO's analysis practices paves the way for intelligent, data-driven bridge maintenance and asset management. The paper was presented at the Annual IRF Global Conference in November 2018

Click the link below for further details of Matsumoto et al.'s abstract.

This past February, NEXCO-West USA's team traveled to the Gulf area to verify and validate the use of DTSS. During a 3500 miles trip, NEXCO-West USA successfully scanned 11 bridges in 4 different states. The total bridge deck distance analyzed was 35,576 ft, with a scanning time average of 1.09 minutes per scanned mile. By mid-March, Nexco's team of engineers detected major and minor spalls, delaminations, unsound patches, pattern cracking, and moderate to severe cracks in all of these bridges.

Current inspection methods cannot keep up with the aging and deterioration of infrastructure in the United States. NEXCO-West USA stands ready to meet this growing need for predictive maintenance plans through our novel analysis methods.

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