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Best practice dictates that infrared inspection results be documented in a written report. Such reports should clearly define who performed the inspection, how and when it was conducted, and what equipment or structure was inspected. This information, along with imagery and a detailed description of conditions or problems found should be included in the thermographer’s final report.

Many thermal imagers automatically record corresponding daylight photographs for each thermal image captured. For imagers that do not have this feature or when higher quality photos are desired, one may use a separate digital camera.In doing so, it is important to duplicate the imager’s viewing angle and select a distance that provides the same perspective in both the thermal and daylight images.

If you are a thermographer, you know how important it is to have the correct imager.  Equally important is your report writing software.  Properly designed software enables you to quickly generate reports thereby spending less time doing paperwork and more time performing inspections.

If your thermal imager has multiple color palettes, you may wonder, ‘Which palette is best?’  For applications such as electrical systems, monochrome may be less confusing.  Multicolor palettes can provide an advantage when imaging targets where exceptions exhibit small delta T’s or when imaging targets with several discrete temperature zones.  When in doubt, thermographers should include both monochrome and color thermograms in their final report.

An infrared inspection isn’t over until the paperwork is finished.  Although conducting inspections can be an adventure, the attendant paperwork can be tedious.  Having the correct software can make a thermographer’s job easier by drastically reducing reporting time while organizing data into a format that is useful and easy to understand.

Defining the Ideal IR Reporting Software

Thermal imaging is a nondestructive test procedure with applications across a broad range of industries.  Worldwide, thermal imaging is used daily to detect defects within electrical and mechanical systems, building envelopes, boilers and steam systems, process equipment, and flat roofs.

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Negative Findings Versus No Problems

Infrared inspections may be performed for a wide variety of reasons including condition assessment, quality assurance and predictive maintenance. In its simplest form, thermography detects, displays and records thermal images and temperatures across the surface of an object. In many cases, thermal anomalies are indicative of deficiencies, changes, or undesirable conditions within the object or system being inspected. Typically, such conditions are reported with a thermal image and a description of the anomaly.

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Using IR Reporting Software to Increase Productivity and Profits

Companies are constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency and cut costs.  One of the most effective ways to reduce costs is to the improve the productivity of an operation or department.

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