Infrared Thermal Imaging

Introduction.

Why temperature?

Temperature is one of the most measured quantities in our daily lives, whether at home or at work. We cook our foods to a certain temperature, we dress ourselves by knowing outside temperatures, doctors use temperature as a starting point for disease diagnosis.
In industry, temperature is one of the first observable parameters that will indicate the condition of operating processes and equipment. heat, or thermal energy, is a by-product of all work whether electrical, mechanical or chemical.
Heat is generated either intentionally or unintentionally, it is transferred, contained and otherwise attempted to be controlled or expelled to suit our process needs.
The resulting thermal behaviour of electrical, mechanical or process equipment can be a powerful clue to diagnose problems or predict reliability of industrial equipment.
Infrared Thermography is an electronic technique that quite literally allows us to see thermal energy. With this new capability, plant maintenance personnel have recognised Infrared Thermography as one of the most versatile and effective condition monitoring tools available today.
Infrared Thermal Imaging enhances a companies ability to predict equipment failure and plan corrective action before a costly shutdown, equipment damage or personal injury occurs.

What is Infrared Radiation?

Lets start with defining heat. In physics, heat is a form of energy associated with the motion of atoms or molecules and is capable of being transmitted through solid and fluid media by Conduction, through fluid media by Convection and through empty space by Radiation.
Infrared radiation is heat that is transferred by electro-magnetic waves through empty space (or a little less effectively through air).
If you ever sat in front of a fireplace, you have experienced heat transfer through radiation. An infrared image or thermogram is produced by an infrared camera. It depicts the thermal radiation in a scene as emitted and reflected by the objects in the scene based on their temperatures.
The weather satellite image you see on the television is an infrared image, the cold areas (tops of clouds) are shaded white and the warm areas (ground) are depicted as black.
In industrial Thermography we usually reverse this and show hot objects as white and colder objects as black.
When appropriate, we can colorize the image. Usually reds and yellow depict hotter items and blues and violet shades show cooler items.

-::- This site is designed and authored by David Stevens IEng MIIE(mech) F.I.Diag.E. -::-