The use of thermal scanning, or thermography has increased dramatically with the commercial and industrial applications of the past fifty years. Firefighters, maintenance technicians, building construction technicians, archeologists all use thermal scanning, helping them to be more efficient in their fields.
Recently in Egypt, according to the Antiquities Ministry, thermal scanning of the Giza pyramids revealed anomalies in the burial structures, which are approximately 4,500 years old. The scan revealed an impressive and notable anomaly on the Khufu, more commonly known as Cheops, pyramid’s Eastern side at ground level said the ministry. The anomalies are presenting much higher temperatures in three stones at the bottom the pyramid. More heat anomalies had been found in the pyramids upper half, and experts say that this needs to be further investigated as they are unsure of what is causing the heat to rise.
Within the construction industry, thermal scanning can help to find basement water leaks, missing insulation and heat loss, even a leak in the roof that cannot be seen with the naked eye.
With more fields of industry using thermal scanning, making sure your equipment has the most precise lens installed is where we, at UKA come in. Our team of experts will work with you from design to final manufacturing, all with our in-house production team.
When emergency personnel, such as firefighters, use thermal scanning it has the potential to help them save lives. In the case of a house fire, they can more easily identify the location of people in the house. Not only can they get to the victims quicker, this allows them to remain safer on the job.
Thermal scanning is widely used in the gas and oil industry. Not only does this help in the construction of new lines – allowing better views of into the ground – it helps them easily detect where there may be breakdowns and problems, potentially saving time, money and homes being without their natural gas supply.
Here is the way thermal scanning works:
- A special lens focuses the infrared light emitted by all the objects in view.
- The focused light is scanned by a phased array of infrared-detector elements. The detector elements create a very detailed temperature pattern called a thermogram. It only takes about one-thirtieth of a second for the detector array to obtain the temperature information to make the thermogram. This information is obtained from several thousand points in the field of view of the detector array.
- The thermogram created by the detector elements is translated into electric impulses.
- The impulses are sent to a signal-processing unit, a circuit board with a dedicated chip that translates the information from the elements into data for the display.
- The signal-processing unit sends the information to the display, where it appears as various colors depending on the intensity of the infrared emission. The combination of all the impulses from all the elements creates the image.
Thermal scanning has a wide variety of applications within various industries for which it can be used. We are on the cutting edge of manufacturing the specific lenses needed in many different pieces of equipment.
Universe Kogaku designs and manufactures optical lenses for thermal scanning, security, high tech and electronic applications. We stock 1000’s of standard lens assemblies and can custom design a solution for scanners, CCTV, CCD/CMOS, medical imaging, surveillance systems, machine vision and night vision systems.