Thermography Experience

More and more people are purchasing infrared cameras lately.  Advertising would have you believe that anyone can perform Thermography.  Routinely advertisers will state that you can be performing inspections right away with no experience.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

I will admit that the new IR cameras are extremely user friendly.  Functions such as basic Emissivity adjustment that only has a minimal list of finish types instead of numbers, allow a new user to get a more believable measurement.  Although the number is more believable- it is usually not accurate.

Experienced Thermographers have a skillset which enables them to interpret what they are seeing on the camera, make necessary adjustments to compensate for many variables, dismiss what is invalid or caused by other factors (reflections, sun load, air movement etc), and provide you with a report containing relevant data.

See below for an example of reflections causing invalid data.

Standard 3 Phase Contactor- Note the steel backdrop

Another area closeby- Note the anomoly (7.7 deg)

Same but in Greyscale

Gues what.....

Pay no attention to the man behind the mask...

The anomaly was entirely caused by the Thermographer himself (me).  Many materials act just like a mirror to Infrared Radiation.  The increased temperature observed was actually the reflection of the imager wearing flash protection PPE. 

Without knowing what they are looking for, an inexperienced Thermographer can get led astray very quickly.  If you enlist the services of an experienced IR Thermographer, you won't be disappointed.

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