The working principle of infrared thermal imaging camera

An infrared thermal imaging camera sounds like a very professional piece of equipment in a certain field. What exactly is it and how does it work? For those who don’t know, here is a brief introduction.

All objects with temperature will emit infrared rays. Infrared thermal imaging cameras receive the infrared rays generated by objects, display the temperature distribution according to colored pictures, and find abnormal points in temperature through subtle differences in temperature. There are two types of thermal imaging cameras: fixed and portable.

Thermal imaging camera

A thermal imaging camera is a specialized device that can monitor thermal patterns in the infrared wavelength spectrum without requiring direct contact with the device. It is an instrument that converts the invisible infrared energy emitted by an object into a visible thermal image. It uses an infrared detector and its optical imaging objective lens to receive the infrared radiation energy distribution pattern of the measured target and reflect it to the photosensitive element of the infrared detector. On the device, an infrared thermal image is obtained. The thermal image corresponds to the heat distribution field on the surface of the object. The different colors on the thermal image represent the different temperatures of the object being measured. Generally common infrared thermal imaging cameras work in the mid-infrared (3~5um) or far-infrared (8~14um) band. Mid-infrared (3-5um) infrared thermal imaging cameras are mainly used in high-temperature business fields such as metallurgical industry and chemical industry, and are also used in power systems; the far-infrared (8-14um) band is specifically used for industrial status detection.

Components of an infrared thermal imaging camera

1. Infrared lens: receives and converges the infrared radiation emitted by the object being measured;
2. Infrared detector component: converts thermal radiation patterns into electrical signals;
3. Electronic components: process electrical signals;
4. Display component: Convert electrical signals into visible light images;
5. Software: Process the collected temperature data and convert it into temperature readings and images.

How the infrared thermal imaging camera works

The structure of an infrared thermal imaging camera is similar to a digital video camera. The infrared energy emitted by an object is focused on the infrared detector through the optical lens. The detector sends information to the sensor electronic component for image processing. The electronic component translates the data sent by the detector into data that can be viewed in the viewfinder or standard video monitor. or the image viewed on the LCD monitor. Infrared thermography is a technology that converts infrared images into thermal radiation images, from which temperature values can be read. Therefore, various pixels in the thermal radiation image are actually a temperature measurement, enabling non-contact measurement of the surface temperature of the object.

Infrared thermal imaging cameras can perform non-contact, high-resolution temperature imaging, which can be converted into high-quality graphics and can provide a lot of information about the measurement target, making up for the shortcomings of the human eye. For this reason, it is now used in power systems , civil engineering, automobile, metallurgical industry, petrochemical, medical and many other industries, it has been widely used, and its future development potential is even more unlimited.

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