Gyroscope sensor GYROMAT: High-precision surveys for cost-efficient planning reliability

 

Avoid measurement errors and reduce costs with world’s only gyroscope sensor for determining and checking direction with high precision. When high precision is required and other measuring methods are no longer effective, the gyroscope sensors of our GYROMAT series provide you with measuring results of the highest accuracy. This happens quickly, easily, and reliably even in geographically and topographically challenging terrain and under difficult conditions. Our gyroscope offers completely automatic north-seeking and azimuth detection with worldwide unsurpassed accuracy for the exact direction of your construction project. Possible sources of error in the measurements are compensated. You avoid subsequent directional corrections and instead reach the end point of your measurement project accurately and reliably.

With wireless remote control and data transfer, our gyroscope sensors provide additional security, but can also be operated conventionally with manual mode. Challenges in construction and measurement projects in tunnels, shipbuilding, or other projects requiring the highest directional accuracy are solved quickly and efficiently with the use of our gyroscope sensors. High-resolution data facilitate easy analysis, calculation and evaluation of the data and support the monitoring of the gyroscopic or geodetic survey.

Thus, you are guaranteed to lead your project to success within the predefined cost and time planning. The GYROMAT sensors can be purchased individually as a product from us - or chartered together with a DMT expert team as a service for your construction project. If you decide to purchase a GYROMAT, you will also receive a two-day free training session for the device.

The Perfect Tool for Gyroscopic Surveying

Our GYROMAT 5000 is the most accurate surveying gyroscope in the world. Its measurement method compensates for possible sources of error such as refraction, error propagation, or even plumb line errors when the direction is to be determined from a shaft. The piezo drive around the horizontal angle with high-resolution angle encoder acquires the measurement data with the highest precision. The state-of-the-art energy concept with reliable energy buffer and exchangeable battery makes the system faster, safer and easier to maintain. The housing is ergonomically designed and is therefore particularly suitable for geodetic and other surveys in demanding terrain.

The possibility of individually equipping theodolites or total stations allows universal use for geodesy or industrial surveying. Examples of such use can be found in directional measurements underground, in tunnel surveying or in metrological applications for north-seeking.

A New Generation of World-class High-precision Gyroscope Sensors

GYROMAT 5000 is the successor of GYROMAT 3000, which provides measurement results with an accuracy of 1/1000th of a gon. This corresponds to an arc deviation of approximately 1.6 cm at one kilometer distance. The measurement time for a directional measurement is approximately 10 minutes. The new, improved 5000 version provides an even greater surveying accurary of 0.8 mgon and allows for shorter measuring times of approx. 6-9 minutes, delivering even more precise information in less time. The new piezo drive with a high resolution angle encoder and the new energy concept with a reliable energy storage system and replaceable battery make the system faster, more reliable and easier to maintain. The option to add a theodolite or a total station as required enables the instrument to be used universally for geodetic applications or control work.

Our gyroscope sensor offers the following advantages:

  • Reliable north-seeking gyroscope
  • Compensates for error sources and measurement deviations such as refraction, error propagation or plumb line errors when measuring direction from a shaft
  • Application guarantees planning reliability and cost efficiency
  • Menu-controlled measurement sequence
  • Extended monitoring functions
  • Gyroscopic measuring unit with reliable intermediate energy storage

Other advantages and unique features are:

  • Fully automatic measuring sequence
  • Pre-orientation-free measuring method
  • Wired interfaces (USB / RS- 232) for control and data transmission
  • Certified according to DIN 18723 part 7 (1990)

Geodetic and other successful applications of the GYROMAT have been reported in the articles provided below.

Extreme precision

(Story and interviews)

Developed for extreme conditions underground, used in extreme tunnel construction: DMT’s gyromat has already set the direction for around 4,000 projects. Other industries are now discovering the world’s most accurate surveying gyroscope.

If you ask Dr. Jörg Niese how exactly the gyromat measures, he will generally answer by citing an example: “If you were to cut a cake into 400 pieces and then cut one of these little pieces of cake into 1,000 even smaller pieces, then you would have an idea of the accuracy involved.” In technical jargon, this means that the gyromat measures with a directional measurement accuracy of 0.8/1,000 Gon, which corresponds to an arc deviation of about 1.2 centimetres over a distance of one kilometre. Its accuracy makes the current model, known as GYROMAT 5000, the gold standard of survey gyroscopes.

This ergonomic and compact device has a gyroscope at its heart which is suspended from a sensitive torsion strap and observed by a very accurate electro-optical sensor. Gravity and the Earth’s rotation ensure that the axis of rotation of the gyroscope wants to align parallel to the Earth’s axis, which points to the North Pole. Using the gyromat and another device, a tachymeter, it is possible to determine the exact angle between a measured line and geographical north. “And the beauty of it is that I can do it anywhere: in a tunnel, a ship’s hull or an industrial hall,” explains Niese, who, as a product manager at DMT, is in charge of the gyromat.

The gyromat is used where no GPS signal can reach and where the highest directional accuracy is required, because any deviation can lead to costs to the tune of millions of euros. This is the case with the construction of kilometre-long tunnels and of large ships, and increasingly in the aerospace industry and other industrial sectors. “In longer tunnel projects, two or more huge tunnel boring machines are often used,” says Niese. They start drilling at different points and, of course, have to meet at the end with the smallest possible deviation. As a service provider, DMT has previously provided metrological support for the Eurotunnel under the English Channel and the longest road tunnel in the Alps (the Gotthardt Tunnel). “These were flagship projects which earned us a good reputation worldwide,” says Volker Schultheiß, project manager of the surveying team at DMT. So it is not surprising that the company is also working on the Brenner Base Tunnel, which, after completion, will be the longest railway tunnel in the world at a length of 64 kilometres (including all access tunnels).

DMT’s expertise and the surveying gyroscope were also used for the underground tunnels to the World Cup stadiums in Qatar, where Volker Schultheiß and his team were responsible for simultaneously managing 16 tunnel boring machines. During their assignments, the surveyors sometimes encounter extreme conditions, including temperatures of up to 45 degrees in a tunnel, for example. “The humidity is really extreme, and it sometimes knocks you out,” says Schultheiß, who travels a lot in the Middle East. Smaller diameters of three metres in power line tunnels in Berlin or supply tunnels for the EXPO in Dubai with a diameter of over ten metres are just as much a part of the repertoire as the large road and railway tunnels with diameters of around 15 metres.

The gyromat is also the directional measure of all things in the construction of underground railways in Scandinavian cities such as Gothenburg and Stockholm, where the tunnels are blasted through hard rock. “We act as a kind of insurance provider for our customers,” says Schultheiß. In many cases, the gyromat measurements confirm the customer’s data, thereby offering them certainty. But Volker Schultheiß is also familiar with other cases: “With the gyromat we once discovered that a tunnel had deviated several metres off its axis.” Thanks to DMT, the customer was able to correct this.

“The accuracy of the gyromat is its unique selling point,” says Jens Schweitzer, Director of Machine Diagnostics & Geomeasuring Systems at DMT. “It’s a very durable high-end system that we’re constantly developing.” The gyromat is also available to buy and already worldwide in use. With each new version, the device has become more precise, faster and safer in recent years.

In the meantime, other industries have discovered this phenomenal accuracy for themselves. “In shipbuilding, you need measurements to align the machine parts,” reports Niese, who, as a product manager, trains and supervises customers in the operation of the device. Many large shipyards use the gyromat to calibrate their own calibration system. The navigation equipment of the ships they build is calibrated on turntables. DMT’s surveying gyroscope can be used to determine exactly when the table is aligned with geographical north. And aerospace technology companies are also using the gyromat as a reference standard to calibrate their own gyrocompass systems, which are used in aeroplanes, helicopters and satellites, for example. Thus it is that the gyromat, developed in 1978 for underground use, continues to offer orientation on land, at sea and in the air to customers all over the world in 2023.

 

 

The surveyors in the longest tunnel of the world - AlpTransit Gotthard: Measurement Uncertainty of Gyro-measurements in the Construction Works of the Gotthard Base Tunnel (p. 50-57)


"...With the GYROMAT of the Westfälische Berggewerkschaftskasse (WBK, today DMT, Essen, Germany) at the end of the 1970s [Eichholz, K. and Schäfler, 1978] the first automated high precision gyro theodolite was presented and commercially available on the civilian market. This instrument can be considered as a reference in tunnel projects and was therefore utilized as well by different institutions in the Gotthard Base Tunnel..."

 

 

Lesotho’s rivers now flow to the north

 

"A 32 km tunnel cavity,which leads away from the recently built Mohale Dam, is currently under construction...For the tunnels cavities actually to meet, it is necessary to carry out precise surveying work. Building on the need and experience in German coal mining, the precision gyro-theodolite "Gyromat 2000” has been developed for such measurements. Its predecessor had already been used in the construction of the Eurotunnel which connects Great Britain with the European mainland..."

 

 

Light at the end of the tunnel - Reporter, the global magazine of Leica Geosystems, Issue 71

 

"DMT developed one of the first high-precision surveying gyroscopes for the German coal mining industry. The Gyromat was subsequently further developed for a variety of tasks...since then, DMT experts have successfully carried out out more than 3,500 gyroscope campaigns across the globe using high-accuracy Gyromats and Leica Geosystems total stations..."

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