looking for the best IR camera onboard a ship

[asbjaeger]

Hello all, New here to this forum. Many great things to read here.
looking it buy a IR camera for our engineroom. i have some knowledge of them, from looking many years ago. I work on a factory trawler in the Bering Sea. Every type of system you could think of. from temps of -40C for refrigeration to 500 C main engine exhaust temps. any and all thoughts are helpful, thank you in advance.

asbjaeger

[Bill W]

Do you want to image the -40° or measure it accurately ?

Accurate measurement is a big challenge as there is so little IR energy from a -40° surface and any reflections or camera internal effects have a large impact.  I do not think any of the 'phone' type would cope at all well.

Even a FLIR Ex has the following limitations:

Object Temperature Range
 –20°C to +250°C (–4°F to +482°F)

Accuracy
 ±2°C (±3.6°F) or ±2% of reading, for ambient temperature 10°C to 35°C (+50°F to 95°F) and object temperature above +0°C (+32°F)

One of the commercial firefighters cameras perhaps ?  Rugged enough but even then they may image down to -40°C but accuracy is poor / off specification. 


regards
Bill

regards
Bill

[asbjaeger]

Thanks Bill.
I am going to suggest the fire fighting one I believe it is the GF304. Funny you mentioned that because we had a fire in our cargo hold  a few trips a go. ( we are a factory trawler in Alaska- Bering Sea ) and there was a smoldering fire going on from welding that someone was doing at the time and the ember felll below product boxes and the hold was full of smoke and haze from the warm air. it was a blanket of pure white down there. we had a small Flir camera that i asked our factory tech to goand get but it was not rugged enough for that job.
I am looking for something that will work with maintaince with all types of machinery and electrical. I like the Flir DM284 for smaller electrical stuff. and would like the company to get the Flir K2. Then find one that would work on other things with decent resolution. I only put the range that I know we work with here. -40C is for our refrigeration and 450-500 C for our engine exhaust and boiler temps. That would cover all other machinery in between.The Fir E seriers looks about our range.
Thoughts?

[Bill W]

Those are quite a mix of cameras.

GF304 is a specialist gas detection camera from FLIR, tuned for refrigerant gases.  As an imager it does cover most of your range and will be a very good image.  Price could be an issue though (20k ?).  Refrigerant gases are usually quite visible with any longwave IR camera (8-14um, the common ones) as they are opaque at 8 - 9um and cold.

DM284 is limited temperature range (-10 - +150°C) and relies on an optical image to fix the relatively low resolution thermal sensor.
K2 is basically the same camera as DM284 but adding a 0 - 500°C range for the thermal image. Do be aware that in the dark or smoke you lose the MSX and for a 'thermal only' feature like a refrigerant leak the MSX will be unable to enhance it.

Ex series only go up to 250°C, but come in around USD 1500 (E6) or 3000 (E8).

For full spec 320x240x30Hz -40 to +1100°C  firefighter cameras you'd be looking around the USD 3000 mark.  If it matters, several of these will have basic (ANSI, not EX-ic) hazardous location gas safety.
I'm not going to name names as I work for one of them so would be against forum rules.

regards
Bill