Adrian Botes
Condition Monitoring (Engineering)
NEW VAAL COLLIERY
A division of Anglo Operations Ltd
South Africa

Dragline excavation systems are heavy equipment used in civil engineering and surface mining. In civil engineering the smaller types are used for road and port construction. The larger types are used in strip-mining operations to extract coal and these are amongst the largest mobile equipment (not water-borne), and weigh in the vicinity of 2000 metric tons, though specimens weighing up to 13,000 metric tons have also been constructed.

Due to the subsequent failure of a slip ring assembly on a Bucyrus Erie 1570w Dragline, it was then contemplated to install IR windows into the Dragline’s revolving slip ring cabinet to assist in detecting hot connections on the 6.6kv supply line via the slip ring assembly....

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by Gary Orlove

Almost all thermographers know about using Black Plastic Electrical tape as an emissivity improver and reference. But sometimes there are limitations to its use, such as a convoluted surface or a very small component. A couple of months ago, I was reminded of a very good emissivity improver that I had forgotten about.

Applying white-out (one brand is Liquid Paper) is a great way to raise the emissivity of a surface. Its a much better solution for many objects than using the tape. It can be applied to the smallest electrical components as opposed to the tape which will not stick to small surfaces. The white-out washes off by using a small brush and alcohol. I measured Liquid Paper's emissivity at about 0.96 for a LW camera.

Gerry Plasse gets a low emissivity coffee mug for reminding us of the virtues of white-out! 

by Gary Orlove

With the high cost of fuels these days, we would like to publish some articles on how thermography has been used to find and document energy wasting situations. This could range from residential housing insulation voids to blast furnace efficiency.

If you have a case history, success story, or IR application technique you would like to share, please email me at gary.orlove@infraredtraining.com .

Not only do you and your company get worldwide recognition (we have over 15,000 readers, 52% outside the U.S.), but you get credit towards your IR recertification as well (and a gift)!

Straight from the World Wide Web, here is what's going on in the world of infrared thermography.

• New Application for IR! - Remember you heard it here FIRST
  Beijing deploys USD 124,000 surveillance van to stop spitting
  Interfax China - China- Mar 7, 2006
  ... meters away. The vehicle also has an infrared camera and a high power searchlight for use at night, the Beijing News reported. As ...

• Introducing the new FLIR InfraCAM @ only $6,750
  After the most extensive product development efforts in FLIR's history, we are extremely proud to introduce the new FLIR InfraCAM. The InfraCAM will make powerful IR technology practical and affordable for exponentially more users around the world.
  
   

•  

• Several sportsmen bills re-introduced in Senate
  Press & Sun-Bulletin, NY - Mar 7, 2006
  ... herd. The survey consists of an infrared camera-equipped plane flying over more than 500,000 acres of Pennsylvania woodlands. The ...

• Lifestyle changes may be surest path to sleep
  San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - Mar 5, 2006
  ... Once everything was in place, the lights were turned out, an infrared camera was switched on, and all concerned -- the prisoner, the guards, the researchers ...

• Scotland facing heat loss crisis
  BBC News, UK - Mar 5, 2006
  ... The proof lies in the 1999 EU Energy Performance survey which compared insulation standards - and in the thermal imaging work of Stewart Little and his firm ...
  
   

• Prudhoe Bay oil spill shuts down some North Slope production
  Anchorage Daily News, AK - Mar 2, 2006
  ... into the line. BP sent up an airplane equipped with an infrared camera to try to measure how widely the oil had spread. The oil ...

• Area mayors discuss pollution detection
  Baytown Sun, TX - Mar 2, 2006
  ... White added that new technologies, such as the infrared camera the industry representatives later discussed, would help ensure that companies have a “level ...

• HealthWatch: Thermography Takes On Breast Cancer
  WCBS-TV New York, NY - Mar 2, 2006
  ... It's called thermography. It's basically an infrared camera that looks for signs of increased blood flow where cancer cells may be forming. ...

• USA. FLIR Systems introduces low cost thermal imaging system for ...
  BYM News (press release), Spain - Mar 2, 2006
  has announced the introduction of the new ThermoVision Mariner, a powerful, low cost thermal imaging system targeted at the large recreational boating and ...

• Guard backs up war on drugs
  Sioux Falls Argus Leader, SD - Mar 2, 2006
  ... Its role in surveying houses is limited by a 2001 US Supreme Court ruling that use of thermal imaging scanners to check homes for evidence of crimes is ...

• Solving America's Illegal Immigrant Problem
  Christian Broadcasting Network, VA - Feb 28, 2006
  ... Seismic detectors buried underground pick up the vibrations of footsteps, and remote-controlled infrared camera systems pick up activity at night. ...

• COLD BUSTERS: Infrared camera specialists help you figure out ...
  Detroit Free Press, United States - Feb 12, 2006
  ... "When he initially did the test with the infrared camera, I could ... Using infrared cameras, also known as thermal imaging cameras, is one way to spot where ...

• Olympics are faster, stronger, higher tech
  Palm Beach Post, FL - Feb 11, 2006
  ... Picture thermal imaging, infrared technology and electrodes that help athletes, coaches and doctors at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado dissect and ...

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.

• A camera that does can see through MCC doors?
  Does any know of a camera on the market that can take IR images without opening any enclosure? I ask because my new company had just hired someone to do our other plant locations that says they can do this. I am a level 2 and have a rented P65 on my desk....Thanks

• Information Urgently Required
  As former homeowners we are involved in a New Zealand (South Pacific) dispute through water entering what we term a monolithic clad house, which in the States is referred to as an EIFS structure.

• Energetic efficiency of buildings
  I am a student who is carrying out his dissertation about IR Thermography Applied to Energetic Efficiency of Buildings. I would be very grateful if you could send me some information in English, Spanish or German) about this topic: norms, procedures, publications, etc.

• Amperage to heat ratio
  Question, About how much heat per ohm of resistance will be generated across a connection.
  Also is the heat generation linear. Does it have a direct relationship to the amount of current. Or, is the relationship logarithmic?

• Information about Voltage Instrument Transformers (VTs) or PTs and possibly causes of damage
  I need information about the possibly causes of damage of this equipment and the manifestation of this damage in thermography, some web links, or e-books, examples, etc..

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 

Here is this month's brainteaser. Readers who email us the correct identification and explanation of the thermal pattern 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 challenge 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

Last February's brainteaser shows the cold jet stream from a can of compressed air! The image shows just the stream, not a surface affected by the propellant.

Unfortunately, no one guessed this thermogram correctly so we don't have a winner. But we still have a winner of a thermogram contributor, none other than our own Ron Lucier!

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