Thermal Imager Includes Fully Radiometric Camera

July 17, 2006
Fluke Electronics Canada is expanding its line of infrared thermography products with the Fluke Ti20 Thermal Imager

Fluke Electronics Canada is expanding its line of infrared thermography products with the Fluke Ti20 Thermal Imager. The imager is designed for use by industrial maintenance technicians in infrared predictive maintenance (PdM) and troubleshooting applications.

The Fluke Ti20 Thermal Imager includes a portable non-contact fully radiometric camera that measures temperature from -10 to 350 degrees C (14 to 662 degrees F), Fluke InsideIR professional analysis and reporting software with full PdM routing support, training materials and accessories – all for less than $8000. This enables industrial plant maintenance professionals to identify problems quickly and cost-effectively before they cause equipment failure. With the Ti20 plant technicians, can achieve return on investment in the first three months of ownership by lowering downtime by just one hour.

"Though the benefits of using thermal imaging for predictive maintenance are clear, the technology is considered by many to be cost-prohibitive or too complex for everyday use," said Nick Longman, thermography business unit manager for Fluke. "With the introduction of the Ti20 and our recent acquisition of Infrared Solutions Inc., Fluke is making it feasible for a wider range of organizations to use thermography as an ongoing part of a comprehensive maintenance management program. It's a valuable tool in helping reduce the cost of maintenance while improving efficiency in manufacturing and production environments."

"Thermal imaging equipment doesn't have to be too expensive or too difficult for widespread use in predictive maintenance applications," said Longman. "By including the software, training materials and accessories in the package, maintenance professionals and consultants can design inspection routes and allow onsite technicians to use the simple interface on the Ti20 to capture highly accurate images for later analysis."

Fluke InsideIR software enables maintenance professionals to create an equipment inspection route designed to improve the accuracy of subsequent readings. Images from the first inspection are tagged with location names and temperature data using the software and then uploaded back to the imager with instructions that appear as on-camera prompts for the field technician taking new readings. By comparing new images with previous scans of the same equipment, users can identify maintenance trends, spot problems before they become critical and expensive to fix, and verify that repairs have been made for tracking purposes. The software allows users to share complete route sessions via email.

The Fluke Ti20 accurately measures absolute temperature and captures 14 bits of information on all of its 12288 (128 x 96 resolution) pixels; displaying both the thermal image and temperature reading on a large 5.5 mm x 7.5 mm color LCD. Its intuitive menu structure and three-step point, focus and shoot operation is designed to enable even novice users to learn in minutes how to capture and store quality images in the field. Users can adjust critical parameters including emissivity, reflected temperature compensation (RTC) values, palette, level and span and high and low temperature alarms, both in the camera or by using Fluke InsideIR software. Captured images can be analyzed using point measurement, area measurement, and horizontal and vertical axis profiles.

The software includes reporting features designed to help maintenance professionals organize, analyze and share critical PdM program information quickly and conveniently. Images can be organized by date/time or other user-defined criteria into routes that can be quickly scanned in a thumbnail view and exported as a session for further analysis. In addition, users can save images in standard graphical formats for insertion into presentations and documents, and save full reports in Word, Excel, .pdf and .rtf formats. The rugged Fluke Ti20 Thermal Imager stores 50 images and runs for three hours on a rechargeable battery pack or standard AA batteries for maximum productivity and flexibility in the field. The Ti20 imager comes with all necessary accessories, unlimited use of InsideIR analysis and reporting software and training materials.

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