Nowadays, featuring non‑contact precise temperature measurement, infrared thermal imagers are widely adopted in numerous sectors including industry, power monitoring, iron‑and‑steel metallurgy, building HVAC, petrochemical engineering, outdoor activities, perimeter protection, law‑enforcement, forest fire prevention and more. Despite its broad application scope, many users know little about its specific working process and thus fail to give full play to its performance. What is the exact working procedure of an infrared thermal imager? Below is an introduction compiled by Kaimorui’s editorial team:

Specific Working Process of Infrared Thermal Imager

The infrared thermal imager mainly receives infrared radiation energy from the measured target via its optical imaging system. The energy is projected onto the photosensitive elements of the infrared detector. Subsequent circuit and signal processing generate an infrared thermal image. Essentially, it forms images based on infrared‑band energy, followed by pseudo‑color rendering, where different colors correspond to different temperatures, so that the surface temperature distribution of objects can be visualized intuitively.

Between the optical system and the infrared detector of the thermal imager, an opto‑mechanical scanning mechanism scans the infrared thermal image of the target and focuses it onto single‑element or split detectors. The detector converts infrared radiant energy into electrical signals. After amplification and conversion into standard video signals, the infrared thermal image is displayed on a TV screen or monitor.

Such thermal images correspond to the thermal distribution field on object surfaces. However, compared with visible‑light images, thermal images deliver weak signals and lack layers and three‑dimensional perception. To better interpret the thermal distribution of measured targets in practical use, auxiliary functions are implemented to enhance instrument usability, such as image brightness & contrast adjustment, real‑time calibration, pseudo‑color rendering, contour plotting, histogram mathematical calculation and processing.

To sum up the above‑mentioned workflow: infrared thermal imagers support multiple thermal display modes including diverse pseudo‑color palettes, hot‑black and hot‑white modes, and can render real‑time temperature readings across the full frame. Multiple zones can be divided according to channels to show the maximum temperature of each zone in real time. Cursors can be placed on each temperature measuring point, and temperature values can be overlaid as characters onto the image.