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New Digital
Infrared Imager Dramatically Improves Expansion Joint Surveys
In the past, we have used an infrared gun to find expansion joint leaks in high-temperature applications which are covered by insulation and lagging. While the old system was successful at finding leaks, the magnitude of the leak was often difficult to determine. The new digital
infrared imager uses a laser for precise pointing. A bright red dot shows up on
the expansion joint exactly in the center of the viewed area. The entire
visible area of the expansion joint can then be viewed on an LCD screen and
recorded in a digital format that assigns colors to the various temperatures.
It has many of the features of a digital camera in that the image can be viewed
on the LCD screen before it is captured. The lens is manually focused and the
unit has two magnifications (1X and 2X) and images can be magnified further (up
to 4X) on a PC after the images are downloaded. When we download the images
from the portable imager to a PC, we change the file name from the one
automatically assigned by the imager to the number assigned to the expansion
joint for the survey.
The individual
infrared images are presented in our expansion joint survey report. The images
in this article are actual images of a leak in an insulated and lagged metal
expansion joint in a primary air duct to a coal mill in a power plant. In this
case, energy is being lost as result of the leak. Expansion joints leaks can
reduce a power plant’s efficiency, cause environmental damage, and can cause
injury to plant personnel. Finding expansion joint leaks (and fixing them) is
very important. |
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Flexible Solutions Inc., 980 Awald Road, Box 5, Annapolis, MD 21403 ▪ (410) 267-8393 ▪ fax: (410) 267-6160 Last modified: February 04, 2005 |
We
have the very first IRISYS 4010 Digital Imager in the United States (August,
2006). With this new digital infrared imagery we can determine the location,
relative size and magnitude of the expansion joint leak by measuring
temperatures over the entire image at one time. 
