IR/Thermal Monitoring

IRISS, best known in Europe as the manufacturer of the only industrial grade infrared windows, has announced a strategic acquisition.  It has bought the US company, Delta-T Engineering, with the express purpose of broadening its scope in the electrical maintenance safety device market (EMSD).

EMSD products are vitally important to condition based monitoring systems.  They allow the health of energized electrical systems to be monitored, protecting equipment and profits without compromising the safety of the maintenance team. IRISS is seeking to provide its customers with a comprehensive, single source for these devices.  

IRISS has an important message for all visitors to Plant and Asset Management 2014, ‘Good Safety is Good Business’.  And to prove the point the company is marking its first ever appearance at this show with several new products designed to assure uninterrupted production without endangering personnel.

Best known in the UK for its polymer infrared windows, IRISS is now extending the scope of its business to include a range of electrical maintenance safety devices (EMSDs), not just thermal imaging windows.  

These products allow the inspection of a live electrical system to provide valuable condition monitoring data whilst the enclosure remains closed.  This way all possible triggers for arc flash are removed, inspections require less manpower and lower PPE levels.  They can also be conducted quicker and more efficiently.

Although IRISS is currently best known for its industrial grade, polymer infrared windows for thermal imaging inspection, it is the wider scope of its business that is driving growth throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  

The company now manufacturers and markets a range of electrical maintenance safety devices (EMSD), of which infrared windows is part.  These products are designed to preserve productivity, protect the inspection team against arc flash and electrocution and safeguard profitability.

Indeed, this single source approach to effective and safe inspection has seen a sharp upswing in demand for IRISS products across EMEA, creating the need for additional staff.

Derby, 29th October 2014…Hundreds of professionals from the engineering testing and rail technology industries visited Derby's Roundhouse yesterday (Tuesday 28th October, 2014) to attend the inaugural Rail Technology Show and Engineering Testing Show.

Over 50 companies from these specialist industry sectors exhibited at the Shows which were held at a location synonymous with engineering heritage. They were supported by a line-up of leading industry speakers who presented new ideas and innovations across engineering testing and rail technology.

Manpower analysis based on the experience of a power generation company shows a significant return on investment

As a condition of its insurance cover, a power generating company was required to perform regular preventive maintenance on its switchgear.  Regular downtime was not a practical option for the power plant and the hazardous nature of this inspection by traditional means required more manpower and resources than the facility could provide.  Management began to re-think its strategy, especially as safety guidelines for the inspection of energized equipment was making the procedure more restrictive, time consuming and costly.

Maximising profit is important to any business but so too is the avoidance of loss.  A production process may be optimally designed but, if it is frequently interrupted by the failure of electrical systems that power and control it, the result can be catastrophic.  Total operation costs increase, personnel safety is compromised and fire risk escalates. Indeed, it is estimated that around 35% of all industrial fires are caused by electrical faults.

This is why manufacturers are increasingly using thermal imaging in their predictive maintenance and condition monitoring programme.  The technology has proved itself to be cost effective and highly versatile and IRISS – manufacturer of industrial grade infrared windows - reports that regular thermal imaging surveys are now commonly stipulated by insurance companies as a condition of coverage to minimise their own exposure to risk.  

The IRISS stand at this year’s Maintec not only emphasises the growing importance of thermal imaging windows in modern maintenance but also introduces an important partnership to UK industry.  This is the first show which combines the talents of IRISS and ERIKS, the company’s distribution partner in the UK.  ERIKS is known for its holistic approach to automation, repair and maintenance which is why it is just a good fit for IRISS.

ERIKS is responsible for the sale, supply and installation of the entire IRISS range of electrical maintenance safety devices but at Maintec 2015 IRISS thermal imaging window products, in their many forms and in combination with other technologies such as ultrasound, will be the primary focus.

For the Italian company, Giakova srl, the addition of IRISS thermal imaging windows and other electrical maintenance safety devices (EMSD) to its product range was a logical development.  It specialises in the supply of test and measurement instruments and is particularly active in thermography.  Indeed, the company represents the interests of most of the leading names in this field in Italy.

ITC and FLIR are pleased to announce the final program of the ITC User Conference at the Clarion Hotel Sign in Stockholm (Sweden) on October 29 and 30, 2014.

 Take the chance to learn from the experts and to exchange with your peers. Book now one of the few remaining seats by registering on www.infraredforum.eu.

 The new ITC User Conference addresses a wider public and will be a professional meeting place for technicians, engineers, scientists, and users of all kind of infrared measurement equipment. The conference will cover IR physics and applications in a wide variety of fields, from inspection of electrical installations, building surveys, industrial and automation applications, optical gas imaging to NDT and advanced research applications.

FLIR Systems announced the addition of exciting new features and capabilities for its popular T-Series family of premium thermal cameras, as well as two new members of that family, the T460 and the T660.

FLIR T-Series cameras now feature UltraMax™, a unique image processing feature that significantly improves the IR resolution and sensitivity of the cameras.  UltraMax™ images have four times the thermal pixels, twice the resolution, and 50% greater sensitivity than standard unprocessed images. Images are viewed and processed in FLIR Tools software for PC’s.  UltraMax™ images allow users to zoom in on smaller heat anomalies, get more accurate measurements and see more detail than with previous un-processed images.