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Thermography used to be expensive, difficult, and primarily used by large industrial facilities and the military. These days, it's become much more affordable, easier to use, and more broadly applied.
No longer the $20,000+ proposition, the recent release of thermal imagers like the Fluke Ti10 and Fluke Ti25 for electrical/mechanical applications and the Fluke TiR and Fluke TiR1 for building diagnostics brings the entry price down to just a little under $5,000. The massive drop in price has made infrared cameras and thermal images much more accessible – and with it, the applications for thermal imagers that much more broad.
These products are excellent for quick thermographic diagnostic studies (Do I have a problem or don't I?) but sometimes you need higher accuracy and thermal sensitivity to identify the extent of the problem and/or telephoto or wide angle lenses and those cameras can get a little pricey.
But there's good news ... on Sept 01, 2009 Fluke announced that it's releasing two new thermal imagers - the Ti32 thermal imager for electrical/mechanical applications and the Fluke TiR32 thermal imager for building diagnostics. These two products really break the mold by offering an industry leading 320x240 infrared sensor - typically only found on Fluke's top of the line FlexCam thermal imagers - at a sub-$8000US price! Now you can eat your cake and afford it, so to speak.
This is a clever move in the market by Fluke. At the time of writing FLIR (Fluke's main competitor in themography) doesn't offer a 320x240 sensor at even close to this price point so the Ti32 thermal imager and TiR32 thermal imager are really game changing products. If you haven't yet seen these great cameras, you can find them here : thermal imagers.
So what that leaves the electrical professional is in a position of choice. Choose a affordable Ti10 thermal imager for diagnostic applications, choose the Ti25 for a little more resolution and accuracy to assess the extent of a problem, or move up to the Ti32 where higher accuracy, resolution, & thermal sensitivity are needed or when you need a telephoto or wide angle lens. Save the big guns the Ti40, Ti45, Ti50, Ti55 FlexCam thermal imagers for highly specialized applications.
For more information, please visit : www.pqmeterstore.com
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