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Peterson
Predictive Maintenance to Train Boeing Employees
FastPitch, February 17, 2007
Peterson Predictive Maintenance of Hutchinson, Kansas has been contracted to provide
predictive maintenance training for personnel at the Boeing IDS Plant in Wichita.
The infrared thermography group at the IDS Complex will also be given assistance
conducting a complete infrared thermography survey of all electrical equipment
in every building. They will be using Peterson Predictive Maintenance’s
infrared cameras, as well as training the Boeing group how to use their own. “Some
of the equipment that is on site includes air compressors as big as a small house,
along with many precision CNC machines used to make parts,” said Chuck Peterson,
owner of Peterson Predictive Maintenance. more..
DRS
Technologies Receives $124 Million Contract to Produce Infrared Sighting Systems
for U.S. Army Combat Vehicles
IConnect007, February 16, 2007
DRS Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: DRS) announced today that it was awarded a $124
million contract to provide Horizontal Technology Integration Second Generation
Forward Looking Infrared (HTI SGF) sighting systems to the U.S. Army. These systems
provide critical common night vision technology to the U.S. Army’s M1A2
Abrams Main Battle Tank System Enhancement Package (SEP) and M2A3 Bradley Fighting
Vehicles, which continue to be an integral part of the military's operations in
Iraq. more..
FLIR
Hosts "Infrared Open House"
ElectricNet, February 16, 2007
Are you interested in learning more about infrared technology? FLIR is offering
more than 180 FREE Infrared Seminars specially created to bring you up to speed
with the latest on infrared throughout the United States and Canada in 2007! Whether
you’re a long-time infrared user or just getting started, you can learn
even more by attending an Infrared Seminar. Seats for these FREE seminars are
already filling quickly in many locations. Review our 2007 Seminar Schedule and
register today! Gain practical knowledge about infrared! Come see the latest product
introductions and get hands-on time with many of FLIR’s new infrared cameras
– now more affordable than ever before! You’ll explore... more..
Key
lessons for senior management
John Schultz, Reliable Plant Magazine, January 2007
What is your biggest challenge related to condition-based maintenance? That's
the simple question we at Allied Reliability have asked thousands of maintenance
and reliability professionals. The No. 1 response we receive is this: convincing
senior management why condition-based maintenance is important. As one maintenance
manager recently explained: "We had a very strong condition monitoring program
here for about 15 years. We were very successful at preventing production losses
by finding and resolving equipment problems before the equipment failed. Unfortunately,
the company has gone through a series of management changes and reorganizations
to become 'more competitive.' more..
Infrared
scan of your home could save money in repairs
The Detroit News, February 10, 2007
During my weekend radio show, I often tell three or four callers that they should
get infrared scans of their homes. And what exactly can you learn from an infrared
scan of your house? An infrared camera has the ability to shoot video and still
images that detail heat gain or loss. The cameras have several settings for thermal
dynamics and water intrusion. My publisher tagged along with Bob Carey, Infrared
Services of Michigan, as he did an infrared inspection and blower door test of
a suburban Detroit couple's home. The couple had recently moved into a 62-year-old
colonial. more..
Popular
Hubble camera has quit
Los Angeles Times, January 30, 2007
The newest and most heavily used camera on the Hubble Space Telescope shut down
over the weekend and appears to be permanently damaged, NASA said Monday. Though
other cameras on Hubble remain operative, the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which
is used to peer back to the earliest and most remote galaxies in the universe,
appears to be irreparable and will have to be replaced on the next Hubble servicing
mission in September 2008...."As we are looking deeper and deeper, further
back into time, objects are becoming red-shifted into the infrared. We really
need to move to infrared to get to the earliest objects in our universe."
more..
Warren
County has new crime-fighting tool
WNYT, Albany, NY, January 27, 2007
The Warren County Sheriff's Department has a new tool to get criminals off the
street - infrared cameras and wireless computer technology are making it much
easier to find and arrest drivers who are breaking the law. "Basically, people
with suspended licenses think they can pull the wool over your eyes, but this
technology will make it so they can't get way with it anymore," said Warren
County Sheriff's Deputy Kenneth Smith. Drivers who are breaking the law just by
being behind the wheel in Warren County should beware - if you are anywhere near
an undercover sheriff's department car, you will be caught and arrested. more..
NASA
creates new telescope technology
Science Daily, January 25, 2007
(UPI) -- NASA says it has developed a technology that will allow space telescopes
to capture images of the most distant stars and galaxies ever seen by humans.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists have invented "microshutters"
-- each the width of about three human hairs -- to be used in space telescopes.
The shutters -- 62,000 of them -- will be arranged in grids in front of an 8-million-pixel
infrared detector that records light passing through the open shutters. NASA says
the microshutters enable a process similar to human squinting, which is used at
times to help something appear clearer. By squinting, one's eyelashes block light
and that's what the microshutters do... more..
Video
tutorial: Taking infrared pics with a standard digital camera
Mobile Magazine, January 25, 2007
You could probably get away with producing the same kind of results with a little
post-processing in PhotoShop, but this is still a pretty cool demo nonetheless.
In the video embedded below, you will see how you can take a little leftover film,
electrical tape, and a piece of cardboard to produce infrared pictures with a
standard digital camera. I can't imagine you using this to diagnose cavities or
to look into your buddy's broken bones, but it doesn't seem like too much effort
to try out. How does it perform against cameras specifically designed for infrared
pictures? Try it out and let us know via the comments at the bottom of the page...
more..
Possible
fire at landfill probed
Akron Beacon Journal, January 24, 2007
Ohio EPA to study Stark site; evidence sways private experts; threats to air,
water are risks -- PIKE TWP. - A whitish glow showing heat radiating from the
Countywide Disposal & Recycling Facility in southern Stark County posed an
ominous image on the monitor in Larry Davis' airplane. On the ground, nothing
was visible in the darkness on Dec. 30. But for Davis -- a Kent pilot who has
conducted similar flights with his thermal infrared detection equipment for federal
and state agencies -- the whitish glow in his cockpit was convincing evidence
of what he has believed for months: A huge underground fire is burning -- and
growing -- at the landfill....The infrared evidence was ``a concern... and alarming
to us,'' said EPA spokesman Mike Settles.... more..
  
Electrical Testing: Move cursor
over
photo to view thermographic image. |
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FLIR
PathFindIR Makes Night Driving Safer
Telematics Journal, January 19, 2007
The recently launched PathFindIR is an infrared camera that enables first responders
and other drivers to see in total darkness, smoke, dust, rain, snow and light
fog. Vehicle headlight systems provide between 250 to 450 feet of moderate illumination,
giving most drivers traveling at 60 miles an hour less than 4 seconds to react.
By contrast, the FLIR system increases the line of sight five times farther than
headlight beams; so under the same conditions, the driver has more than 15 seconds
to react to roadway and onsite hazards. As part of the newly-forged agreement
between Safety Vision and FLIR Systems, Inc., Safety Vision will promote the PathFindIR...
more..
New
IR Thermography system benefits the Automotive Industry
Optics.org, January 18, 2007
Cedip Infrared Systems has released a new paper describing how IR Thermography
techniques are enabling the automotive industry to solve a wide range of applications
from new vehicle design studies to troubleshooting production problems. -- The
automotive industry is rich in applications for IR thermography. These include
dynamic stress measurement and non destructive testing of automotive components
and structures, ultrasound excited thermographic techniques to identify cracks,
delaminations, poor bonding or other material weaknesses as well as temperature
studies to test the performance of air bags. more..
VISTA
Camera takes to the air
innovations-report, January 18, 2007
The world’s biggest infrared camera for Europe’s newest telescope
left the UK today for its flight to Santiago in Chile.The infrared camera will
sit at the focal point of VISTA – a UK provided survey telescope being constructed
in Chile for ESO, the Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere.
VISTA will be able to map the infrared sky faster than any previous telescope,
studying areas of the Universe that are hard to see in the optical region of the
spectrum due to either (or all of) their cool temperature, surrounding dust or
their high redshift...."VISTA has a much larger number of infrared sensitive
detectors than previous infrared instruments – totalling 67 million pixels...”
more..
UF
professor finds record-making star
The Gainesville Sun, January 18, 2007
Stephen Eikenberry, a professor in the department of astronomy at University of
Florida, discovered LBV 1806-20. Eikenberry and his colleagues believed the star
to be the largest and brightest ever found, and recently officials for the Guinness
Book of World Records affirmed the scientists' findings. Eikenberry and the star,
which is 150 times the size of Earth's sun and 40 million times as bright, will
appear in the 2008 edition....The $6 million telescope is about 8 feet long and
weighs "about a ton." The 4 million-pixel camera uses infrared light
to view stars....Eikenberry has been building infrared cameras since he attended
graduate school at Harvard University. One he built at Cornell University, where
he worked just before coming to UF, was once the world's most powerful infrared
camera. more..
Infrared
light inspects grain one kernel at a time
Europa, January 17, 2007
Each grain is treated with infrared light and the reflections are recorded with
a specially designed detector. Each recording is then analysed to determine grain
quality. The consortium partners report that the new technology is capable of
sorting two billion wheat grains per hour, improving on their prototype by a factor
of 500. -- Despite bread being a staple of the European diet for millennia, determining
the grain quality of its ingredients is still not an exact science. Taste and
personal preferences aside, the quality of the bread we eat can be frustratingly
difficult to establish. more..
Energy
conservation and thermal processing
PlantServices.com, January 17, 2007
...There is a tool for evaluating the efficacy of thermal insulation. Non-contact
monitoring of a surface temperature is the essence of thermographic analysis.
The measuring instrument—a thermographic camera—captures and converts
the thermal information present in the scene visible through the unit’s
viewfinder into a false color image. The spectrum and distribution of colors observed
is directly related to the temperatures present. The thermal data is also stored
as a digital file that can be analyzed in detail at a later time. Thermography
is a tool that finds use in many areas of the plant, not just those dealing with
thermal processing. more..
Hubble's
successor to search for origins of Universe's birth
DailyIndia.com, January 13, 2007
London, Jan 13 (ANI): The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) scheduled for launch
on a European Ariane 5 from Kourou in 2013 has been designated as the Hubble Space
Telescope's successor. Dr. John Mather, the senior project scientist on the JWST,
said the telescope would primarily "extend the science that Hubble had pioneered".
While Hubble gazed at the Universe in optical and ultra-violet wavelengths, JWST,
named after a former NASA administrator will look primarily in the infrared. "The
infrared is where the new science seems to be, and where this mission has a special
and unique advantage. Infrared astronomy is particularly important for understanding
about the processes that went on in the early Universe," said Dr. Mather.
more..
Fighting
fires from space
Sydney Morning Herald, January 13, 2007
In the not too distant future a lightning strike ignites a small but dangerous
bushfire in a forest near a major Australian city. Strong winds mean within hours
the blaze could threaten houses and lives, but overhead a series of satellites
equipped with infrared sensors are watching. Detecting the threat, they send a
warning message to Earth, alerting fire fighters of the blaze within as little
as four minutes of it starting. Crews are quickly dispatched and a potentially
major fire is contained before it has a chance to wreak havok. It sounds far-fetched,
but an international consortium has put forward a plan for a constellation of
dedicated fire fighting satellites to be launched and operating by 2010. more..
Umicore
Picks up Frost & Sullivan Product Innovation Award for GASIR® Chalcogenide
Glass
PRNewswire, January 10, 2007
LONDON, January 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2006 Frost & Sullivan European Product
Innovation of the Year Award in the field of infrared optics is presented to Umicore
in recognition of its novel GASIR® chalcogenide glass
which allows for the production of high-volume, low-cost infrared optics. GASIR®'s
broader transmission spectrum, low change of refraction index with temperature
and high temperature range is set to promote its use across a broad range of commercial
infrared and electro-optic applications. more..
Hair
dryers switch to infrared
SciFi.com, January 9, 2007
The Consumer Electronics Show has always been the premier event for seeing the
latest technology, and this often includes tech that was developed for commercial,
industrial, and even military purpose, then converted to suit consumer needs.
So it comes as no surprise to see "infrared ray" technology being used
for the most important need of hair drying! Kinyo will be introducing an FIR (Far
Infrared Ray) hair dryer for later in 2007 (pricing to be announced). Available
in three models, these are designed with Quartz Glass Heating Element to promote
healthier hair. The new models from Kinyo use about 30% less energy than conventional
dryers since they ditch inefficient nickel-chrome wires. more..
Roof Moisture Testing: Move
cursor over
photo to view thermographic image. |
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The
Classic Cooling Question of Black vs White Coffee
TempSensor.net, January 6, 2007
N. Billerica MA -- Recently all the members of the distribution list for the Infrared
Training Center were posed the classic question: Suppose you are served hot
coffee in a restaurant. You wish to drink the coffee about 15 minutes after it
is brought from the coffee pot. You like to add cream to your coffee, but you
still want the coffee to be as hot as possible after those fifteen minutes. Therefore,
should you add the cream when the waitress brings the coffee or after about 12
minutes? They also stated that: Newton’s law of cooling...and an infrared
camera can help you find the solution! more..
Plane
sweep to rescue drivers trapped by snow
The Guardian UK, January 2, 2007
Planes swept over south-eastern Colorado yesterday to check if any more travellers
were trapped by a blizzard that had created 10ft (3m) snowdrifts. Several carried
infrared-sensing equipment to search for livestock. Emergency generators were
delivered to shelters as at least 50,000 homes and businesses were still without
power as the storm, that once stretched from Canada to Mexico, picked up speed
and moved to the east. At least 12 deaths were blamed on the weather that had
hit four states. Most died in accidents on icy roads with an estimated 44 people
rescued from the drifts. more..
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