Valves

Leak by is evident at this blocked gate valve

• Leakage detection
*>251.6°C

250.0
240.0
230.0
220.0
210.0
200.0
190.0
180.0
170.0
160.0

*<154.5°C

Amorphous heating on left (“cold”) side of valve

indicates leakage
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Hot Compressor Valve

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More Leaking Relief Valves

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 Steam Traps

Steam Trap
In-operative

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 Steam Traps
Steam Trap
Operating properly

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Roof Moisture Leak
Detection

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Wet Insulation - Due to leaking
Steam Tracing

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Studs in a wall (Insulation)

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Fin Fan Exchangers

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Fouling and sediment build up in
exchangers, chillers, and
condensers

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 A Look at process flow in a heat exchanger
Water on the tube side and fouling in the bottom left bell head
Process flow on the shell side

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 Wet Insulation - Blanket is saturated with water due to leak in
steam tracing. Generalized corrosion and isolated pitting to
.220” was found on this carbon steel line after the insulation was
removed. This type of corrosion usually occurs over a long period
of time

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Steam Leak is clearly visible. It may be a
good idea to strip and inspect this area

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 UIC - Under insulation corrosion
The stiffening rings on these pressure vessels are saturated with water.
Typically weep holes are drilled through the center of these steel T-beams to allow the water to
drain. Over years these holes become plugged with oxidized metal and insulation debris.
Corrosion begins slowly then accelerates. I have personally found vessels completely holed
through or corroded through to the internal cladding. Scaffolding vessels such as these can cost
tens of thousands of dollars, but gone unnoticed can cause catastrophic explosions when
hydrocarbon products are involved

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 There was no visible evidence of this relief valve leaking.
However it is readily visible with thermal imaging.
You can see the relief valve on the right is properly sealed.

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Although this exchanger appears to be operating
hot its not. It is merely out of scale. The
cooling fins on the left side of the transformer
are plugged with carbon and debris

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Pump impellers on the suction side of this tank were being wiped out.
Heavy
erosion was also found on the pump case. An IR image shows why.
The sludge is piled almost to the 10” inlet line

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Tank Levels and Sludge
build up
Tank Levels
• Liquid level easily verified
*>43.2°C

40.0 *>106.7°F

105.0
100.0
35.0 95.0
90.0
85.0
80.0
30.0 75.0
70.0
65.0
60.0
*<27.0°C 55.0
50.0
45.0

Crude tank 40.0

35.0
30.0

*<28.1°F

Spheroid Tank

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 This 10” piping system is completely plugged with debris.
Many times plugging begins where you have a notch in the
pipe. In this case the flange gasket faces. The
dark cool spot is due to a lack of flow in the piping system

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In this piping system a nitrogen truck was brought on site.
The nitrogen was put through a heater and hot nitrogen
was put in the line through via a 3/4 “ drain valve. As
the line heated a thermal wave was induced and build up
in the piping was easily detected.

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 In the same manner steam can be used to create the same affect.
Nitrogen is used in many cases when steam or condensate can damage
internal liners s such as the ceramic or refractory liners used in many
power plants.
Steam or condensate can also accelerate corrosion when products
such as sulfur are present . This can create sulfuric acid and cause
corrosion problems

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 Furnace and boiler tubes are an excellent application. However a common problem in
inspecting these tubes are measuring scale temperature. The ambient or background
temperature in your thermal imager should be elevated to the approximate emissivity
and temperature of the refractory or background. A tremendous amount of radiation
is reflecting and refracting throughout the furnace. Spot size and distance must be
considered. In the case of this image the cooler areas on the tubes should be where
measurements are taken. The spalling scale or slag on the tubes is scale or slag
temperature and is not an accurate way to measure the actual tube body.
Measurements should be taken on the darker (cooler) areas on the tubes for accuracy

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Out fall into cooling ponds
or reservoirs

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 These images were taken from a helicopter flying from
200’ to 3000’. The dikes appear intact from the surface,
but water leaking to other areas can be a real and very
expensive environmental problem

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Use in Design of Heat
Pumps

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Gas Fired Power Plant overview. IR can be
used to look at emissions. Look at tank
liquid levels

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 Coal Fired Power Plant overview
Look at and compare stack refractory and
boiler insulation efficiency

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Hot Spots on Furnace Duct

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Flare Monitoring

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Injection Molding

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Process flow in a Pressure
Vessel

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Igloo Ice Chests

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Looking Through Water
Vapor (Steam)

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Polymer Buildup In 30” Line

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Crude and Waste Oil Tan Levels

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Extruder Diagnostics

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Installing Foam Insulation
in a Jacketed Rail Car
Void Area

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Wire being extruded in a
steel mill

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Simulation of Rocket fuel leak
in Space

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Live, side by side jet engine comparisons

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Jet Engine Performance

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Tail Cone Thermal Image

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Jet Engine Diagnostics

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Jet Engine Diagnostics

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Expander Turbine Blades

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Jet Engines

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Jet Engine - Safety

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Possible broken stator bar

*>37.1°C

37.0

36.0

35.0

34.0

33.0

*<32.5°C

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Microprocessors

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Printed Circuit board

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Printed Circuit Boards

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Medical Applications are
Growing

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 New Innovations
ThermoVision Ranger

Laser Rangefinder IR Imager

Color TV

Integrated Pan
and Tilt

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 TM
ThermoVision now takes it
beyond that limit!

A new uncooled infrared camera from FSI

AUTOMATION specifically designed for continuous
monitoring of machines, products and processes

FSI
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 ThermoVision

• 24/7 operation
• Specifically designed for continuous
Process applications
• Multi camera control
• Alarms and Triggers

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 Ground Based Security
ThermoVision Sentry TM
Uncooled Imager
Provides Reliable 24/7
Operation

Integrated Pan/tilt
Simplifies Integration

Programmable Autoscan
Reduces workload
No Gears
FSI
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What a fire fighter sees when he
enters the building...

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 What a fire fighter sees when he
enters the building... With IR

FSI
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 The first IR Imager designed
specifically for fire fighting:

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“SCVA”™ Self Contained Viewing Apparatus
·Hands free
·Snaps-on to any brimmed helmet
·Light weight (1.5 Kg)
·No Cables

Front Clip

Back Strap Display

Imager

See through Mask

Battery

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 Government Applications
Pentagon’s UAV Outrider Program

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Thank You

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