Continuous Thermal Mapping for Process Monitoring

Ametek Land (UK) has developed an innovative Fixed Thermal Imaging (FTi) system for the continuous thermal mapping of processing operations and plant surveillance. The system offers plant operators a complete thermal view of a process with a display that responds immediately to changes that then can be used to trigger alarms, automatically control a process or provide critical quality control information.

The Land FTi system can be used under the harshest plant operating conditions for measuring temperatures from -20o to 1600oC (-4º to 2912ºF) with +/-1% measurement accuracy. The system replaces portable solutions that provide only periodic monitoring. In addition, it frees up plant personnel to act on information, rather than simply capture data.

At the heart of the system is a high-resolution FTi thermal imager specially designed to cope with the most demanding industrial environments, while providing high-quality (320 x 240 pixels) live thermal images. The imager incorporates the latest focal plane array detector technology that is engineered to produce class-leading temperature measurements. Using state-of-the-art digital processing, it provides accurate and highly repeatable industrial radiometric imaging and temperature measurement that is more than twice as accurate as its leading competitor.

The thermal imager is housed in a rugged NEMA 4 and RF shielded enclosure. Once installed and aligned it will operate continuously without user intervention. It can be controlled remotely via a local touch-screen interface or control room PC. The imaging camera connects via a single, quick-release cable to the FTi control processor, whose flexible architecture allows the system to function as a stand-lone control system or as part of a complete package with visualization and storage capabilities.

The ruggedly designed server provides camera power supply and, where required, digital/analog input and output connections. In all configurations, the FTi control processor is able to withstand harsh industrial environments. Four FTi-CP systems can be connected to a remote PC client over an Ethernet network. The complete system includes a software interface that uses standard Windows® format menus and provides plant operators with tools to further improve process control.
The image processing system is pre-installed and configured on the local
control unit to work straight out of the box with minimum set up.