Removing panel covers for electrical inspections I have been asked on more than one occasion about the necessity for removing panel covers to perform an electrical inspection. There are quite a few companies that are inspecting the outside of panels with the doors closed, and only opening them if they see anything on the door. … Read More
General
Building thermography reports, what should be in them?
What type of information should be included in a thermographic report of a building? This is something that varies from one company to another, and indeed from one person to another. There is no real standard report that can be used universally. The following are only suggestions, and my opinion, it is also not intended … Read More
Electrical Reports, what should be in them?
What type of information should be included in an electrical thermographic report ? This is something that varies from one company to another, and indeed from one person to another. There is no real standard report that can be used universally. The following are only suggestions, and my opinion, it is also not intended … Read More
Black Vs White
From a student If you see the link below it is a test by someone proving that a black car is hotter than a white car. is it not true that the emissivity of paint is the same regardless of colour? this has confused me big time. if the emissivity is the same with … Read More
Solar Loading
I have been asked quite a lot recently about the effect of sunshine on thermography. Strong sunlight will cause solar loading, this means that the sun will heat the objects that it is shining on. While we don’t normally worry about colour in thermography, colour will strongly affect the amount of heat transfer that takes place … Read More
Difficult emissivity measurements
I have had several communications from people for whom the basic method for measuring emissivity just doesn’t work. There are various reasons why this can be unsuitable, including not being able to heat the object, or the object temperature being very high, and burning the pvc tape. Here are some suggestions; Firstly we must … Read More
Infrared windows
Infrared windows are often used to allow us to inspect through an opaque solid material. They are made from various materials and are very useful where no other option exists. This blog looks at some of the known issues and is really just my opinion. Choice of material; There are many different materials available, the … Read More
Transmission
The method of measuring transmissivity here is described in ISO 18434-1. The principle is to use a material of known temperature target object to determine the transmissivity of an unknown material. The test material is placed between the camera and the target object , which should be uniformly heated. The emissivity setting in the camera … Read More
IR Mirrors
“Are there IR mirrors available?” Answer; Yes IR mirrors are available and can be used for many different purposes. They can be used where a direct line of sight is not available (to help see around a corner with a camera), and they can be used where the cameras is too close to the target … Read More
snap & go thermography
Thermal camera sales people often advocate the “snap & go” method of thermography. This is where you just take your images in the field and analyze them later. Is this always a good idea? No, it is not always a good idea. Doing your analysis in the field does slow you down, true, … Read More