One of the things we are most often asked about is reporting content and how to format it. We supply summaries of several IR-related standards in the Level I course manual, including ASTM E-1934; Standard Guide of Examining Electrical and Mechanical Equipment with IR. One of the topics discussed therein is reporting. To order ASTM E-1934, go to www.astm.org.

There is a section in the ASTM E1934 about reporting that is very comprehensive.  For those not familiar with standards and the verbiage typically associated with them, you’ll see the word “shall” used extensively. In standards, the use of the word “shall” will generally accompany what’s known as a “mandatory rule”. A mandatory rule is one that must be followed. The list of information that the states shall be provided is long. Included are many of the fields that can be populated in the templates that are included with many imager software suites. These templates are quite useful, aligning important data with images, providing tables for data entry, etc. Even so, many questions may remain.

Your report is the tangible deliverable for your inspection program. For internal customers or external, the written report is what they get for their IR dollar. You want it to be pristine, and valuable.  So, what you include in it is important. Then, what needs to be considered is what you want your report to tell your customer. What are you trying to say?

The templates provided by equipment manufacturers give the IR image, usually the accompanying visual image, and can be customized to give other data as well. Aside from what the camera provides, what else should you include? Here are some points to consider:

• If you are assigning severity. We cover this in Level I, and while we wish everyone would use the system we recommend, not everyone does. Whatever you use, you should mention it. Your customer needs to know how you’re deciding to call one finding “severe” and others “low”. So, don’t leave them wondering; tell them.
• What equipment you inspected, and conversely what you didn’t inspect? Many inspection programs aren’t route based. If yours isn’t, or if no work order specifies equipment item by item, an equipment list needs to be included that tells what you inspected, what you didn’t, and why you didn’t inspect those. If you don’t document equipment that was down or locked out, and later on that equipment fails, there’s no record of whether it was inspected. This could open you up to liability or loss of credibility of an internal program.
• A mention of the limitations of radiometric temperature measurement. Some potential end users of an IR report may be less than savvy when it comes to infrared technology. Many people believe IR to be infallible at temperature measurement. The report is an opportunity to educate them and can help ensure that the temperature measurements reported aren’t relied upon on their own.

Those are just a handful of things to consider. If you’re not sure your reporting format is doing the trick, ask us. We’re here to help. Or list other things you think should go into a report below in the comment section.