Thermal imaging improvements aid industrial maintenance

It is widely recognised and accepted that a combination approach to industrial maintenance is key, and with an array of technology now available - much of it under the umbrella of Internet of Things (IoT) - there’s no shortage of ways to prevent and predict failures, minimising downtime in any industrial setting through early identification of potential issues or faults in equipment.

Thermal imaging is a great diagnostic aid as so many physical objects have properties that have heat signatures - whether they be buildings, electrical circuits or mechanically moving parts - which can be displayed using thermal cameras which have sensitive infrared sensors built in, opening a whole new world of information.

As electrical and mechanical equipment has a tendency to get hot before it fails, identification of heat fluctuations can be very useful in preventing downtime from failures. Using thermal imaging equipment is also an efficient way of getting information – it’s very easy to scan a building or piece of production equipment and quickly identify problems that would otherwise only be detected by 100's, or perhaps even 1000's of point measurements. Or, only when parts fail.

As sensors become more affordable, these can increasingly become the eyes for automated systems that can fine-tune processes, give early warning of breakdowns, and flag up where energy is being wasted. They have the potential to provide more comprehensive and permanent condition monitoring of all aspects of production line equipment and of produced goods for quality control purposes - or for optimising the line to minimise energy consumption.

Thermal imaging technology merges with other instruments

At RS, in the handheld test and measurement arena, we’ve seen a real price reduction over the last five years, with products that may have been in the region of £2,000-£3,000 now being available as a smartphone attachment for around £200 – bringing it within reach of maintenance engineers. 

And the smaller and more affordable these sensors become, the more flexible the opportunities for integrating them into new devices to address new applications. We have seen common engineering maintenance tools now feature the addition of thermal imaging capability, such as within inspection cameras, multimeters, clamp meters and production line monitoring equipment, as well as attachments to smart phones. Examples of this include the Fluke 279 FC Handheld Digital Multimeter and the FLIR ONE Pro LT Pro-Grade Thermal Imaging Camera for Smartphones. 

This trend towards the technology being built into other instruments is making the technology more accessible. Furthermore, many of the manufacturers of the sensors are offering the technology to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to design into their products, including FLIR, which offers its tiny Lepton device to OEMs.

Today, products such as the FLIR AX8 fixed camera can be mounted onto production lines to monitor individual lines and keep an eye on those pieces of machinery that could present reliability challenges. But as the cost comes down further, we’re sure this will be built increasingly into machinery as an element of condition monitoring.

Not only are the latest additions in this area really opening up this technology to the industrial sector, but with further miniaturisation, such sensors could even be included in eyewear - providing easy, hands free maintenance monitoring in the industrial space. The future of thermal imaging certainly looks exciting and will be one to watch. 

Allen Boney is product marketing manager at RS Components

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