Anyone who has had the opportunity to attend one of our Applications for Infrared Thermography Level 1 courses knows very well the settings in the menu systems that can and cannot be changed. I’ve apologized to my students in the past as I press over and over how important it is to produce good, quality images. Our captured image must be correct, 100% of the time, we cannot just turn on the camera and start shooting.

Nuestro trabajo como usuarios de la termografía muchas veces podría ser resumido de manera muy general en que nuestra meta en muchas ocasiones es poder localizar los patrones térmicos que sean diferentes o que parecieran no ser iguales a los demás.

Those of us in the maintenance and reliability industry should be aware of the importance of a quality condition-based monitoring program to maintain the reliability of any given operation. We should also know what key tools are necessary for our program. Vibration, oil analysis, infrared, electric motor testing, motor circuit analysis, non-destructive testing, and ultra sound to name a few. But, how do we get the most from each testing method?

That, friends, is the million dollar question!

One of the most misunderstood parts of our job as thermographers is safety. Thermographers shouldn’t really be at risk of electrocution as we should not be touching any of the equipment we’re inspecting. We are at risk of arc-flash though. Most of the arc-flash safety standards are written from the point of the electrical worker working on live electrical equipment, not from a non-contact inspection. Where does that leave us? Wearing rubber-insulating gloves with leather protectors would make it almost impossible to operate our image systems.

Al contemplar el pasado, las cámaras termográficas han crecido en popularidad. Han sido hechas conocidas al público por medio de películas, televisión y noticias. En algunos casos han sido representadas de manera incorrecta y en algunas otras ocasiones muy parecido a la realidad.

Vibration analysis, oil analysis, ultrasound, infrared thermography, power quality analysis and electric motor diagnostics, are all tools in the suite of reliability maintenance technologies.

Occasionally, it’s nice to see or hear of a success story from a student who is excited to begin a journey as a Thermographer. The first few days of class may be a bit overwhelming, but then, usually after learning more about the equipment and exploring how some surfaces emit energy more than others, the lights will begin to come on.

L’on rencontre plusieurs difficultés lors des inspections par imagerie thermique des immeubles. Plusieurs problèmes n’apparaissent qu’arrivé sur les lieux. Ce papier présente des conseils qui pourront vous aider à contourner certains des obstacles lors de vos prochaines inspections.

Como contratista que viaja para realizar inspecciones de termografía, no tengo muchas oportunidades de hacer inspecciones de seguimiento a las reparaciones realizadas luego de haber entregado mi reporte. En el pasado, cuando trabajaba tiempo completo para una planta aprendí del beneficio de realizar inspecciones de seguimiento pues es una de las mejores oportunidades de aprendizaje tanto para electricistas, mecánicos, ingenieros, personal administrativo y los usuarios de la termografía.

If you’re new to electric motor testing (EMT) you may not be familiar with the testing protocols. One of the most common questions we receive is regarding choosing one testing protocol over the other. Which one is best?

The short answer? Both There’s a reason there are two test methods; they yield two different data sets.