PECM Issue 75 2025 | Page 74

Using infrared technology to maintain uptime

MEASUREMENT AND MONITORING APPLICATION STORY

FLIR
Using infrared technology to maintain uptime
Maintaining vital equipment and safety are among the top priorities for engineers in the logistics and warehousing industry. The role engineers play in this field is especially crucial as they are the primary defense against operational downtime and ensure customers receive their order on time. Recently, a group of logistics engineers across Europe looked into how they could improve their maintenance and safety through a Condition Based Maintenance( CBM) program based on infrared imaging.
Recognizing they could gain more from thermal inspections, the group of engineers investigated what resources were available to expand their use of thermal imaging and even built an entire preventative maintenance program around it.
The Solution FLIR’ s technical sales team was able to address the above challenges by devising a tailored solution for the logistics and warehousing engineers. The solution was formed through three FLIR products: the FLIR T530 camera equipped with Inspection Route functionality, certified Infrared Training Center sessions delivered throughout Europe, and FLIR Thermal Studio Pro software, which includes the FLIR Route Creator feature.
The FLIR T530 is a part of FLIR’ s premium T-Series of cameras that captures high resolution thermal images and is engineered to help diagnose components in any environment. The T530’ s MSX enabled thermal images provided the engineers with the detail needed to locate and diagnose issues before they resulted in equipment failure. The included Inspection Route functionality also provided inspectors with a step-by-step guide through the inspection route, including reference imagery to instantly spot changes over time and improve the consistency of image capture. Lastly, the camera features a rotating optical block, which was essential for inspectors to look around common obstacles without strain.
Training was critical to the team’ s understanding of their new FLIR T530 cameras, so FLIR provided access to certification courses through The Infrared Training Center. These courses focused not only on relevant camera features but provided a deeper dive into ther mography, aimed at ensuring each user could accurately record thermal images during inspections. As a result, the inspection teams are better able to capture informative thermal images, understand the data collected, and make informed decisions on equipment repairs and replacements.
Lastly, FLIR Thermal Studio Pro gave maintenance teams the ability to speed up their post-inspection analysis by creating custom, autogenerated reports, automatically synchronizing images from thermal
FLIR T530 Professional Thermal Camera.
The optical block for FLIR T5xx and T8xx thermal cameras can rotate a full 180 °, ensuring you can image both low and high targets from a comfortable working position.
74 PECM Issue 75