Do Materials Properties have Effects on the Performance and Reliability of Reflectorless Total Station?

'Adewumi J., "Afeni T. B., Onifade M. and 'Adeyemi A. J.

'National Steel Raw Material Exploration Agency, Kaduna, Nigeria. *Department of Mining Engineering, Federal University of Technology Akure

Department of Mining Engineering and Mine Surveying, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Keywords: Distance Measurement Performance Reflectorless Reliability Total station

Abstract

This research studied the effect of selected materials and colours on the performance and reliability of South reflectorless Total Station (NTS 372), especially in relation to the quality of distance measurements. This was done by taking the horizontal distance measurements to the reflector as 'true value' to check the reliability and performance of reflectorless measurements. Pre-laboratory tests (density, hardness, uniaxial compressive strength and mineral compositions) were carried out on the rock samples that were used to replace the reflector during distance measurement with relectorless mode. The results show that the density ranges between 2.51g/cm and 2.77g/cm, the rebound hardness between 27.5 MPa and 51.0 MPa and the UCS (uniaxial compressive strength) between 46 MPa and 160 MPa. The rock samples used have the following mineral compositions; feldspars, plagioclase, quartz, orthoclase, calcite, dolomite and minor amounts of mafic minerals, such as biotite and hornblende. The analysis of the results of horizontal distance measurements show that all the readings fall within the upper and lower limits of the reflector readings. This shows that materials and colours have little or no effects on the performance of the South reflectorless total station used.