By Mike Schneider
FLIR Systems, Inc.

Saw your article for improving emissivity when electrical tape isn't an option. I have another suggestion as well that our readers may find helpful. I have used spray foot powder for a number of applications. It is fantastic for printed circuit boards (where there may be as many as 20 or more different materials and emissivities). A light coat sprayed on the board has very little effect on the thermal characteristics of the board and gives you a wonderful single emissivity. When finished, simply brush off with a soft brush or even compressed air.

By Pascal
Tegg Services

I thought maybe you could use these pictures , they are from a MCC that we recently inspected . This picture was taken by myself and my partner Denis Robitaille; we had lots of fun finding the cause of the heat source.

The center fuse had a bad connection causing heat transfer. When removing the fuse we found that it was a manufacturers defect of the fuse, the base or contact was not even, causing a bad contact of the surfaces. The client was very impressed with our finding which has developed into a trusting client service relationship.

Pascal receives a low emissivity coffee mug for his contribution.

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

• Warm-Blooded vs. Cold-Blooded Animals - NASA
  With a few exceptions, all mammals and birds are warm-blooded, and all reptiles, insects, arachnids, amphibians and fish are cold-blooded. What does it mean to be warm-blooded or cold-blooded? The temperature of an animal's blood is related to its body temperature.
   

• Galaxies Don Mask of Stars in New Spitzer Image
  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CA - Apr 26, 2006
  ... within them. Spitzer's infrared camera was able to see the dusty clouds for the first time because they glow with infrared light. The ...

• Desperately seeking sleep
  Monterey County Herald, CA - Apr 24, 2006
  ... on the wall. Her eyes scan the room. She spots an infrared camera bolted to the ceiling and an opening in the wall. "Is that hole ...

• Archeologists may have found ancient pyramid -- in Bosnia
  Chicago Sun-Times, United States - Apr 21, 2006
  ... stone blocks. Satellite photographs and thermal imaging revealed two other, smaller pyramid-shaped hills in the Visoko Valley. Last ...

• COLOUR MAPPING your body
  Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica - Apr 18, 2006
  ... This is about digital infrared thermal imaging or just thermal imaging -- not your regular X-ray, ultrasound, CT scan or MRI but technology used to detect very ...

• Schools Toxic Pest Dilemma
  PR Leap (press release), CA - Apr 18, 2006
  ... Fear of pesticides has school officials in many states asking for this new process. Another advantage in using heat is when thermal imaging cameras are used. ...

• Unexpected detail in first Venus south pole images
  Spaceflight Now, FL - Apr 16, 2006
  ... in switching on several of the instruments and yesterday the VMC (Venus Monitoring Camera) and VIRTIS (Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) imaged ...
  
  
   

• Tests help find air leaks that waste fuel
  Columbus Dispatch, OH - Apr 16, 2006
  ... An infrared camera that shows temperature differences in surfaces revealed a number of places where outside air was finding its way into the house. ...

• Blue Ring Around Uranus
  Universe Today - Apr 7, 2006
  ... De Pater, Hammel and Gibbard have observed Uranus since 2000 with the second-generation NIRC2 infrared camera using the adaptive optics system on the Keck II ...

• 
   

• Seeing In The Dark
  Processor.com - Lincoln,NE,USA - Apr 14, 2006
  ... Infrared camera technology is most often associated with military applications such as ... This infrared thermography image of a cooling system circuit breaker ...

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.

• CO2
  I am looking at monitoring a process in a 40% CO2 environment at about -40C. Does anybody have a transmission curve for CO2 or know off hand at what wavelength it is transmissive, or will I need a filter to see through it

• Insurance
  Hi. I am trying to get liability insurance for my business. Can anyone direct me to an insurance comp. i am in New Brunswick Canada. Thanks

• Pancake transformer
  I have here a pancake transformer. It is in a variable frequency drive. It is also at some very high temperatures. I believe we may have a partially shorted transformer. Does anyone come to the same conclusion? If not why not? would greatly appreciate feedback soon!

•  

• Info on SPF Foam Roofs Scans
  Looking for information on performing an IR scan on a foam roof. How difficult are they to scan. Does any one have any thermograms to share of SPF roofs.

• Leak Detection Spray Rack
  I am trying to find information on either buying a spray rack or direction on how to build one. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

• Hollow Core Precast Concrete Roof Deck IR?
  I have a question that i cannot answer, so i thought that i would put it to the experience of this board. We have been brought in on a building which is in the middle of construction as a third party expert. This building has a 12,000 sq. ft. hollow core precast concrete roof deck, which is like a cmu wall laying horizonatally. The roof system has already been installed. During other investigation the general contractor cored into one of the hollow horizontal columns formed by this precast construction and water just poured out. So now the general contractor is worried that this is consistent in the construction and need a means of locating the moisture in these hollow core channels. Is infrared a tool under certain conditions that can be used? If not, what recommendations, besides coring all 12,000 sq. ft. is there to test each hollow core channel?

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

No this isn't a waffle iron! This is a thermal image of a preheated copper cooling block that is used to cool down the refractory wall of a furnace. The "waffles" on the block appears to be colder than the rest of the block, but this is primarily due to the emissivity difference of the finish of the copper surface, (a grinder is used to remove unwanted material).

We had only one correct guess this month, and the winner is Reynhard Heymans from South Africa. A thanks and a mug also go to our thermogram contributor, Adriaan Beeslaar, who coincidentally, is also from South Africa!

Privacy Statement: We're happy to have you on our list, and since we want to keep you all to ourselves, we never share your e-mail address with anyone. Period.

 

Manage your Subscription
You are receiving this message because you requested to receive our thermography newsletter, you are an ITC  student, or a FLIR Systems customer. To unsubscribe or update your user profile, click here.

P.S. Did a friend send you this? Sign up to get your own here - it's award-winning, useful, and complimentary.

P.P.S. Got questions, comments, or ideas for us? Email us - thanks!