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Become one with your Thermal Gradient
“Assuming that the temperature T is an intensive quantity, i.e., a single-valued, continuous and differentiable function of three-dimensional space (often called a scalar field), i.e., that:Where x, y...
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Thermal Imaging: Practice, Practice, Practice!
You have just returned from some very good training for that new infrared camera sitting in your supervisor’s office. The next inspection does not hit the schedule for four months, what do you do? Let...
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Think Thermally® at Breakfast
Ever since I was a child, I have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Another adage I’ve heard states, “Eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch and a pauper at dinner,”...
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Think Thermally® at Lunch
I’ve mentioned a time or two that I live in the scenic North Georgia Mountains. The town I live in has around 1,700 people, and not a whole lot else. Tourism is a big industry in my little town and...
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Infrared - Just for the Fun of It
This short blog will be about doing something for no other reason than the joy of doing it. I have tried to put some sort of inspirational or instructional message in many of my blogs but not this...
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Infrared and Electric Motors: Worth the Trouble?
I've got to say, I just love to world of Reliability. It’s exciting to become involved with companies as they begin the journey toward reliability-centered maintenance and away from the old...
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Safety First & Infrared Thermography
The “safety first” slogan has been around for a long time now. There was a day, however, when safety was pretty much last. My dad, who grew up on a farm in Southeast Missouri, passed on to me a lot of...
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Thermal Growth Study
While working as an on-site thermagrapher at a facility, our PDM dept was having problems with a multi-stage blower (Hoffman). The problem we were having was that no matter how the millwrights...
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Low-Speed Rotating Equipment: IR to the Rescue!
I usually don’t like to generalize, especially when it comes to people, but I have to say that maintenance and reliability folks are pretty much the same no matter where I go. From the West Coast to...
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New Thermal Imager Features; Necessary or Not?
What features are useful on a camera and which are just “fluff”? This is a question you will likely broach if you’re in the market to purchase an infrared camera. In my 13 years working in this field,...
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Temperatures and Low Emissivity in Electrical Apparatus
The sadness I see on the faces of some students is almost too much to take sometimes. For example, the looks I get in our Level I Thermographic Applications course, when we’ve just finished discussing...
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Was it Luck or Skill?
Yesterday a person, who wishes to stay anonymous, contacted me about one of his recent surveys. He had found a potentially costly problem during an inspection of one of the many MCC’s on his inspection...
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What Does it Take to Start an Infrared Program?
I have been asked so many times, “What does it take to startup an IR program?”Surprisingly, I never have the same answer. Not because I am inconsistent, but rather that there is no one correct answer....
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Blowin’ in the Wind: Convective Cooling Indoors
When the discussion of convective cooling comes up, people always discuss the issues they have outdoors. Substation inspections, building envelope studies in windy locations, those sorts of things. I...
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Can “Cold” Indicate an Electrical Fault?
Often times as thermographers we have it drilled into our head to look for “hot” spots. In our search for these hot spots, however, is it possible that we’ve been overlooking potentially important...
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A Boy and his Camera: A Love Story
Tomorrow, most of us will take some time to celebrate the Fourth of July, our nation's Independence Day. I like to reflect on our freedoms and all that makes our country a fantastic place live. We...
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Electrical Inspections; Don’t Camp Out
I’m talking about how much time is spent in front of open live electrical systems, in what is commonly referred to as the “Danger Zone.” I have seen quite a few beginning thermagraphers spend entirely...
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Physical Challenges and the Thermographer
As a thermographer, your physical condition can become apparent when performing inspections, especially at older and larger plants. For example, climbing some grain handling facilities have proven to...
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Apparent Temperature
I2R and Apparent TemperatureOne of the more important points to remember in Electrical Thermograpy is the relationship between load (current through the circuit) and heat. What is often not...
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Calibration Intervals: How Often?
Like any other measuring instrument, infrared imagers require periodic calibration. One of the most often asked questions about imager calibration is how often to have it performed. The answer you get...
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