Your Seacocks Specialists Discuss How to Use Marine Thermal Cameras to Your Advantage

Raritan Engineering your seacocks distributors would like to share with you these topics we thought would be of interest to you this month regarding the benefits of marine thermal cameras.

Your seacocks manufacturers talk about marine thermal-imaging systems such as those from FLIR and Iris enhance navigational safety at night by enabling boaters to see obstructions such as lobster-pot buoys, floating debris and other unlit, low-lying objects that might not show on radar.

This technology can also help you find fish. With thermal imaging, for example, you can see weed lines and kelp paddies on the ocean at night, says Lou Rota, vice president of worldwide sales for FLIR Maritime. Such floating vegetation, which attracts offshore fish, possesses minute heat differences that thermal imaging can detect.

Thermal cameras can also see fish at night. “We’ve had a lot of people saying that they’ve hooked tuna after finding breaking fish before daylight by using a thermal-imaging camera,” says Rota. “Many anglers also tell us that they can spot schools of bait fish dimpling the surface in the dark.

Black Hot shows warmer objects in darker shades versus the traditional White Hot thermal image, which turns warmer objects a lighter shade.

Ever notice how things often change temperature before they fail? Cold things get hot, hot things get cold? So it figures that an infrared, or thermal, camera would be a great tool for preventive maintenance. 

Finding a Thermal Detective

Many surveyors have added thermal detecting to their services, but do your due diligence before hiring one. Not all are qualified—some have the camera, but not the experience and expertise to interpret the images accurately. 

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Finally, a professional thermographer will have better equipment than you or I will buy, unless we want to get silly with money. It can record 20 minutes of radiometric data at 30 frames per second (essentially thermal videos) that Allinson can then analyze frame-by-frame; many thermal cameras record, but don’t allow analysis later. It’s a lot more camera than most of us need.

Be Your Own Thermal Detective

Hiring a thermal detective for a one-time scan only tells you what’s what at the time, but problems can appear unexpectedly on a boat. So the best way, I think, to use thermography in a scheduled maintenance program is to invest in a thermal camera (you don’t have to spend 40 grand), acquire the know-how to use it skillfully, and make it a step in your maintenance program.

Go Thermal Full-Time

Based on the Lepton micro-thermal camera, the AX8 system connects one or more cameras with a laptop or  multifunction display running the operating system and offers full-time thermal monitoring. 

It uses MSX technology to create detailed images. The boat owner can draw regions of interest on an image, add spot meters to watch them closely, and set too-hot and too-cold alarms. 

Cox says the AX8 system is easy to connect. “If you can plug in a cable, you can do it,” he maintains. The system is wired with Ethernet cables; each camera has an I.P. address, so you connect to it like you do any other network device over an Ethernet. It works very much like a video surveillance system.

Playful Orcas Caught Chasing A Boat From Underwater Camera

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via The Basics of Thermal-Imaging Cameras

via The Benefits of Using Infrared Sensors on Your Boat

via Playful Orcas Caught Chasing A Boat From Underwater Camera