Advanced Infrared Resources

Applications and Images

Advanced Infrared Resources is a Company dedicated to delivering superior quality, personalized, hands on infrared thermography training.

This page contains images of a few of the many application areas where infrared thermography has been utilized over the past 50 years. As the technology advances and matures, new applications are being developed continually. If you have any application related questions, please feel free to contact us.

The military was the first to develop infrared imaging systems and used them in World War II. One of the first electronically scanned images was that of a ship in a harbor in Europe as early as 1946. Much of our modern infrared technology was funded by the military and is now commercially available. Today highly sophisticated computerized IR systems are used in military applications such as target signature analysis, weaponry studies and vehicle R & D.

     The first commercial use of infrared thermography was in the field of medicine. In the mid 1950's a Canadian doctor began studies on breast cancer using an infrared scanning system. Today medical applications are once again being explored. Areas such as soft tissue injuries show much promise.

     Electrical inspections, both outdoor and indoor, are the best known use of thermography at the present time. This application was started in the mid 1960's with the advent of semi portable equipment by the Swedish Power Board. Locating a "hot spot" with thermography can save thousands of dollars giving a big payback on investment. Fires, unscheduled outages, lost production and personal injury due to electrical anomalies can be avoided by using infrared thermography on a regular basis.

In the 1970's many petro\chemical producers around the word began using infrared thermography in applications such as furnace tube inspections. Conditions such as coking and scaling could be identified with specially configured infrared cameras. Infrared is also used to identify refractory/insulation problems as well as storage tank contamination and sediment buildup.

Mechanical inspections using infrared thermography can be performed as a stand alone inspection or used in conjunction with other disciplines such as vibration analysis or airborne ultrasound. Equipment such as motors, couplings, bearings, pumps, conveyers etc. can be inspected on a regular basis and the computed temperatures trended over time. In most cases a significant change in the trended temperature indicates a cause for concern. 

  Building inspections have been an accepted application for thermography since the early 1970's. Missing insulation, air infiltration/exfiltration, poor window seals etc. can be identified under the right conditions. In a conventional built-up flat roof structure, areas of moisture infiltration can be located quickly and accurately by a properly trained thermographer. These areas can be identified by their board like warm image signatures under certain environmental conditions, often saving the building owner thousands of dollars.

     In the modern computer age in which we live, Infrared thermographic testing of electronic components such as printed circuit boards (PCBs) has proved a valuable tool in both production and diagnostic areas. The ability of thermography to view small, irregular shaped objects, and remotely determine thermal characteristics and temperatures has been a great asset to manufacturers.

  Veterinary applications such as equine thermography began to gain acceptance in the 1990's. This application has been explored for a number of decades but is now gaining credibility as a valid diagnostic tool.

          During a training course in Orlando the students were taken to watch the space shuttle take off. These images from the beach, taken by Wayne Ruddock with an Agema camera, show the shuttle in the sky. In the last two images you can just see the solid rocket booster separating.

If you have any specific infrared thermography questions, or require more information, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone fax or email.

Advanced Infrared Resources

wayne@infraredthermography.com     Ph. 250-579-2141 Fax 250.579.5418 Cel 714.325.4374

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