Welcome to IRWeb.INFO, a Web Guide to applications of Thermal Infrared Radiation Thermometers and Infrared Cameras, also known as Thermal Imagers.

(Image Courtesy NASA: Infra-red image of the Orbitor’s starboard wing, taken with the EVA IR Camera.)

It provides a searchable repository of stories and commented web links to resources for those interested in correctly using IR Thermometers, Infrared Thermal Imagers, Radiation Thermometers, Line Scanning IR Thermometers, and thermal Infrared Night Vision devices.

It also is a place where users may share their experiences easily by commenting on any previously published article and resource paper or by submitting their own stories of successes and failures.

Both are important yet seldom discussed openly.

It was Richard Feinman, a Nobel Prize winning physicist, who once observed “We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, …. So there isn’t any place to publish, in a dignified manner, what you actually did in order to get to do the work”.

Special categories have been set up to cover “What worked (and what didn’t) for me”. You are welcome to share your experiences. Registration is required, but only involves a valid email address, otherwise it is free. We do review all submissions for appropriateness.

We have adopted some Open Source blog software to create this site. I think you will find it useful, interesting and hopefully be moved to suggest other content.

The bottom line is: This site shows where and how these unique devices have and can be used successfully. There is little that is unique in the world today, and the technologies represented in Infrared devices is no exception.

You’ll find that the available infrared images and know-how available on the Web is extensive and contains many duplications. Many people have tried to reinvent the IR “wheel”, so to speak, many times.

The makers of Infrared imaging and measurement devices have vested interest in supporting their users. Many run regular training programs both for first time and experienced users. Much of the class time in those classes is devoted to teaching about the language and science related to the operation of the measurement devices and the physics of infrared emission and detection.

These devices result from technological advances in optical physics and engineering as well as well as he advances in microcomputer and software technologies. They continue to advance almost daily, it seems.

The science that underlies the emission of thermal radiation is basically a constant. It is the same as it has been since Max Planck published his 19th century breakthrough in 1899!

Here you will find listed references to the theory; they abound. There is no need to reinvent that wheel here. We speak mainly to uses and the science & art of camera and sensor uses.

There is a special feature, an optical property of surfaces called emittance or emissivity, that is poorly understood and appreciated by many newcomers, and even some experienced Infrared technology users.

It is more accurately called “Spectral Emissivity” and “Spectral Emittance” (the two names have come to mean essentially the same thing). Rather than attempting to deal with that subject, we have developed a separate website, SpectralEmissivity.com that focuses on it. You can visit it by clicking here.

Hope you learn and enjoy.

Even more so, hope you benefit and return to share. That’s the way the Web works best!

Best wishes,

Ray Peacock

G. Raymond Peacock
President
Temperatures.com, Inc.