by Jeff Lebold
Boldstar Infrared Services
Oshawa, ON, Canada

Something just wasn’t right with one of the Bowmanville Zoo’s oldest attractions, Vance the pachyderm. Vance, a 29-year-old Asian elephant was exhibiting symptoms of leg troubles. Weighing in at almost 10,000 pounds and displaying majestic 5-foot tusks, Vance literally is one of the biggest attractions at the zoo.

Bowmanville Zoo Attraction Vance the Elephant

Zoo curators Wendy Korver and Michael Hackenberger had been noticing Vance's reluctance to apply his full weight on his front right leg. It was unsure however exactly what part of Vance’s large right leg was the problem. Irritation in either of the foot, knee or hip joints would all cause Vance to favor the leg as he was doing. An attempt to use infrared thermography inspection techniques as a method of pinpointing the location of Vance’s leg woes was suggested. Knowing the exact location of irritated, inflamed tissue offers great advantages to the Zoo owners and veterinary staff in hopes of correcting the elephant’s condition. Widely accepted in the equine field for diagnosis of various conditions in horses, infrared thermography is capable of detecting small surface temperature differences. By displaying the temperature differences as an image, thermography can zero in on inflamed and irritated tissue.

On October 21, 2001 under overcast skies, an infrared thermal imager was turned on and pointed at Vance. Instantly it was noted that Vance’s right front leg was indeed the problem and was seen “operating” at an elevated temperature. A closer look and a few adjustments of the imager's temperature spans for better temperature resolution indicated the source of the troubles (click the images for a high resolution version.) 

Vance had a sore front right foot. Down at the base of the foot, on the right front side. Infrared images of the bottom of Vance’s huge front feet were also taken to rule out any foreign object concerns such as a nail or sharp stick as the cause of the front foot irritation. The images of the bottoms of Vance’s feet did not indicate any irritation and Vance’s veterinary staff could concentrate on the front right foot condition. Further inspection of Vance’s bulky frame also located a smaller irritation on Vance’s rear right foot and front left shoulder. Both conditions are suspect linked to the front right foot condition and Vance’s favoring of the leg over the recent past. Corrective action by the zoo’s caretakers has been developed and put into action to help Vance’s foot troubles. Thermography will be used in follow up examinations to study and prove the effectiveness of treatment.

 Jeff receives an InfraMation Executive Attaché Case for his newsletter contribution. Published articles earn credit towards IR recertification.

• Enter a Category
  Newsday, NY - Jun 23, 2004
  ... growing list of companies that survey wildlife populations with the emerging technology of infrared thermography. Through an infrared camera lens, experienced ...

• Canine Mold Detectives and Infrared Cameras - A New and Better ...
  Emediawire (press release) - Jun 22, 2004
  ... a home or commercial building, infrared thermal imaging has the edge on the exterior. Properly used under the right conditions, infrared thermography can serve ...

• For this test, feel free to doze off
  Kingston Daily Freeman, NY - Jun 18, 2004
  ... other factors. The room is also equipped with an infrared camera and microphone to monitor patients while they sleep. Kobyleckyj ...

• Spied! Mercedes' World-Beater 2006 S-Class Luxury Flagship
  AutoWeek - Jun 16, 2004
  ... Also planned is night vision that uses an infrared camera to alert the driver of obstacles in the darkness, a wireless communication and data interface ...

• Squirrels use infrared against snakes
  Nature.com, UK - Jun 16, 2004
  ... understand. Rundus placed wild-caught squirrels in a cage with a rattlesnake and filmed the resulting show-down using an infrared camera. ...

• Artist painted over his own prints
  Miami Herald (subscription), FL - Jun 14, 2004
  ... An infrared camera enabled them to distinguish printer's ink from the artist's oil paints. Two lenses of a stereo microscope gave them depth of vision. ...

Here is a selection of recent new threads by IR Community members. Feel free to click the links, see how people have responded, and post your own response if you like.

• Aviation applications please
  I am interested in finding any sites that may assist me in finding new ways to utilize our camera in the aviation area. I found the lock-in thermography page but it lead to another question. which is can the p-60 be used in this application and if so where can I research the procurement of a thermal wave source, and instruction on utilizing this technique?

• Solar Collector measuring with IR camera ?
  I'm Working in a Solar Institute and i have to measure the Heat losses inside the Solar Collector ( Thermal) by using an Infrared Camera and this collector have a GLASS cover which cause too much problems to measure the heat loses inside by an IR camera ,so I'm suggesting to remove the Glass cover and replace it by a Teflon ,or Makloron cover .so my question will it work or not and why ?

• Water In Subgrade
  Has anyone had any luck detecting water infiltration below an asphalt surface? More specifically, water in the subgrade below a road surface and being able to trace the source.

• Best marking to put on tank for IR level measurement
  What is the best color or material to put on a tank to be able to use an IR photo of the tank to see the feet and inches of material in the tank? I thought black would work best on a white tank but tests have shown that black does not work real well. Would reflective tape would well?
  
  Does anyone have any experience with this?

• Uneven loads
  What would typically be the problem if only one phase of a 3 phase circuit was showing a temperature difference(30-40 degree F difference) throughout the entire system (into breaker and out through starter to motor)?
  
  Amperage readings are: L1: 19.2, L2: 20.9, L3: 13.2.
  
  I guess my question is what would cause the uneven loads between adjacent phases and what percentage of difference should you expect to see?

• Motor wiring and net efficiency
  I know how to use the ITC provided indirect power loss tool for specific shapes, but I'm wondering if there is any kind of rule of thumb approach for conservatively estimating the hit to efficiency in situations where you find a motor running hot throughout its entire circuit.
  
  The example I'm looking at right now is a 100HP booster pump in a municipal water supply system. The motor is on a VFD even though it is generally running under a fairly consistent condition near full load. The operator indicates that most of his VFD equipped motors run hotter than he'd like them to. This particular motor runs warm but not alarmingly so, but the primary conductors are running >45°F over ambient on a warm day.
  
  I'm suggesting this is a probable deficiency that warrants further investigation, but my problem extends a little deeper.
  
  I'm doing this work for a local energy authority, and my specific task here is to identify not so much hazards or maintenance issues as to identify and, to the extent that it's possible, quantify energy savings opportunities.
  
  So what I need to figure out is, given the information above, how can I come up with a ballpark figure representing the energy being wasted by the poor condition of this motor, beyond just measuring the heat coming off its constituent parts and converting from watts to dollars? If a motor is supposed to be premium efficiency rated at 92% but it's running like this, can we assume a 5% or 10% or worse hit in efficiency? What's the best way to quantify this without overstating the case?

• Inactive cable
  Has anyone out there had any experience performing infrared inspection on feeder cables in manholes. What we're looking to do is to identify inactive cables as opposed to cables carrying load in a manhole.

And of course if YOU have a question or want to start a discussion on a topic, we would love to hear from you. Just post a new thread on a message board.

Brainteaser of the Month  [top]

Here is this month's brainteaser. Readers who email us the correct identification and explanation of the object(s) in the thermogram are entered into a drawing to win a prize from ITC. Please put "Brainteaser" as the subject of the message.

Click here to email your guess

Do you have an interesting image that you think would stump other thermographers? If so please email me your image (preferably in native .img, .jpg, .tif, .tgw, or .tmw format) with an accompanying visible photo and explanation. If your image is used, you receive a gift as well.

Last month's Brainteaser is thermogram of a capacitor bank.

Our winner is Stuart Palk from Magna IV Engineering Ltd. in Alberta , Canada. Thanks to Rai Jagdeo from Motor Check Canada Inc. in Manitoba, Canada for the IR image. Both Stuart and Rai receive a special low emissivity traveling coffee mug.

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