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With the introduction of low-cost infrared (IR) thermal imagers onto the market, established infrared thermographers have expressed a great deal of concern that untrained and inexperienced people will get these devices, make inaccurate or misleading assumptions about all things infrared and this will cause the industry to suffer. Their thinking is that the amatuers’ infrared misinterpretations will make their clients or their management think less of the technology and jeopardize their own infrared programs.
The lament here is not about the IR programs, it is about job security. Fear not, this scenario will not play out. The proliferation of inexpensive infrared imagers will only help the industry and all those in it, including and especially all those IR gurus who are the worried souls. Never be scared of change. Change is good and it is inevitable, so embrace it. The IR thermography industry is going through a paradigm shift and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. To those entering the cadre of infrared thermographers...welcome!
The Infrared Industry and the Responsibility of the Players The IR industry can be divided into three market sectors; Military, Imaging and Thermography. Military systems are sold to governments for military operations. Imaging systems are sold for security, for navigation in boats, cars and airplanes and for law enforcement. These two are where most of the money, technology and resources of the infrared industry are consumed. Thermography includes all the commercial and industrial applications for infrared cameras. Here are the players in thermography and the responsibilities of each: It is the responsibility of the IR imager manufacturers to provide and improve IR hardware and software, build usable, helpful features into their products and compete in the marketplace to deliver these products at whatever price they can get for them. It is the responsibility of the infrared training companies to improve the methods and delivery of their training products and to come up with quality training products that fill the widely varied needs of the those now using IR and the needs of those who will be exploring many different uses of IR thermography in the future. It is the responsibility of infrared thermographers to develop, refine and improve existing applications, techniques and methodologies for gathering and disseminating infrared data efficiently and effectively and to find new uses for the technology. Finally, it is the responsibility of everyone in thermography to promote the industry and add to its body of knowledge. Start an IR Program at Your Facility Today In order to benefit their company, IR thermographers need money, because: - They need to buy an infrared camera that is capable of performing the required task along with the associated hardware, software and accessories.
- They need to know what they are doing, so they need training.
- They need experience, which can be the most expensive component.
- They need access (which means cooperation) from the client.
- They need time to survey the equipment that needs to be surveyed.
The lack of time, money and resources for infrared thermographers is often a communication problem. In many organizations, the power (therefore resource allocation) follows the ‘alpha’ personalities and not necessarily the smart thinking. Many infrared thermographers belong to a specific department where tasks are handed down by short-term thinking, task-oriented middle managers, who may not know or care that thermography has many, many uses. Often, the reliability and predictive maintenance group handles infrared thermography along with other modalities, which leaves a limited amount of time to improve the IR program or try out non-traditional applications. Don’t forget those universal problems; high turnover of motivated personnel, lack of proper training, departments being in ‘competition’ with one another. In order to make a successful IR program, thermographers must improve their service, lobby for resources, advertise their successes and take the initiative to try out new applications. This may not be easy for some. Thermographers are often engineers and technicians and not salespeople. They may be uncomfortable making a judgment on something that they have never looked at before. There are many uses for IR, but they must be able convince others to recognize the value and pay for the survey to take place. From this point forward, I am speaking to you...the IR program manager. If you love infrared thermography as I do and make your living from it, motivation is the easy part...it is called hunger. Infrared contractors (service providers) have the same motivation. Below, I will share with you in-house thermographers and potential successful IR program managers, the things we contractors do to survive and thrive. Perhaps you could use what you read below to get more resources to perform infrared thermography at your facility. Understand that you are a contractor Think of your “IR Operation” as a separate entity (a company within a company) and treat it as if you have to survive on your own merits. Are you a motivated, fearless, gregarious visionary. If that is definitely not you, pass this article on to that person, to run the operation. You need a sales and marketing department, an accounting department and an engineering department with thermographers that like thermography. Improve your “service” Start off by evaluating your service from within. Frankly, it’s probably not that good. Stop thinking up excuses for being mediocre right now, and don’t look back! Be great from now on and seek out great people you want to hire. Take the time to ask the department heads and your customers how you could improve your service to them. Treat them like you would treat a customer on a sales call. Understand that your customers want you to be great, so you can solve problems for them. Do what you need to do to have a great service. Get over the sales stigma Sales is a science, an art and a disipline that you need to learn, so treat it as such. Read books and articles about selling, talk to salespeople, especially those who visit your offices. Watch what they do right and what they do wrong. You have the unique advantage of being able to watch the sales presentation and then sit in on the post-presentation analysis and decision making process. Use what you learn to improve your own sales techniques. Advertize and market your IR Operation Design and use an IR logo on everything you do. Send every decision-maker in your company a copy of your successful finds. This is called advertising and it is absolutely necessary to your operation. Put your findings in the company newsletter and send copies to the president of the company. Don’t be timid. It does not matter if you are the best thermographer on Planet Earth if nobody knows about you. GET INK! Publish papers, notes, blog your results and advertize. Make your reports remarkable There is nothing remedial about IR thermography itself, so your reports are your service. Take pride in your work product and take the time to get excellent images under the proper visual and thermal conditions along with any amount of textual data you need. Your reports need to be professional, so never rush through them. Include your operation’s logo and your company’s logo in a well-designed report with high-resolution images. Don’t dare produce a report without brilliant photographs to go with your thermographs and make the imagery the predominate feature on the page. In fact, do not use anything less than a 4-megapixel photo camera to take photographs. Line up everything perfectly, do not misspell words or abbreviate too much. In other words, stop designing and writing your reports around how quickly you can finish them. Instead, lobby for the time to do the job right. Design your reports for people who do not know anything about infrared...but soon will. Nobody ever complained about a report that looked too well-prepared. Those doing repairs may say they do not need a nice looking report, but they will love your excellent reports and so will everyone else. When you find something big, let everyone in the company know about it.
Do realistic accounting of your operation Be realistic about the risks that your operation takes, all the costs that you incure and the return on investment that you offer. At some point, a professional bean-counter in your company will be asked to evaluate your ‘books’, probably soon after you ask for money. Your figures have to be reasonable and credible. The best way to do this is to get the figures from the accounting and operations departments as they will not be inclined to argue with their own figures. Do not underestimate your costs or overestimate your payback. You need good equipment, so budget for it. You also need to budget for training and attending conferences to keep up with the latest technology and network with your counterparts in other companies. You are going to have failures, so plan on them, account for them honestly and learn from them. Use the IR advantage to your advantage Infrared thermography has an advantage over other modalities because it is immediate, graphic and it is usually pretty easy for people to understand. This is a big advantage when trying to obtain funding for untried applications. Having a picture that a manager can understand (often, a person with limited engineering savvy) may be the linchpin in the approval process. Exploit this advantage. Take a few moments to look at something that you have not imaged, consult with the owner or operator and think about the possibilities...chances are a new application will be discovered. What comes first, the heat or the vibration or the sound or the smell? It doesn’t matter, if you are an IR thermographer, try that first.
Change is a good thing
Set aside at least 10% of your resources for trying new applications. It will make you a better thermographer and a better manager because you will have to think. Consider the the following to determine whether or not IR may be used effectively for a particular application. Ask three questions: 1) If it can be done, would the information be valuable to the end-user? 2) Is it possible to successfully accomplish the test and get valid results? 3) Would obtaining the information cost more than it is worth to find out?
Have a clear understanding with the end-user of the project possibilities before starting on an infrared project. It is a good idea to write down the goal of the project along with what procedures might be used and discuss the potential for success. Also, the possible problems that could be encountered should be brought to light. It is extremely important to explain the limitations of the physics to potential end-users so they will have a clear understanding of what the project will and will not be able to accomplish. Now do yourself and your company a favor, start an infrared program and make it great! Author Biography Gregory R. Stockton is President of Stockton Infrared Thermographic Services, Inc. Based in Randleman, NC, the corporation operates applications-specific divisions. Greg has been a practicing infrared thermographer since 1989. He is a Certified Infrared Thermographer with twenty-six years experience in the construction industry, specializing in maintenance and energy-related technologies. Mr. Stockton has published thirteen technical papers on the subject of infrared thermography and written numerous articles about applications for infrared thermography in trade publications. He is a member of the Program Committee of SPIE (Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) Thermosense and a session chair at the Defense and Security Symposium. |
