From Research to Reliability Growing Up with Infrared Thermography

About this title

Anyone at any level will benefit from Dr. Bob’s school of hard knocks. Whether you're an aspiring infrared thermographer or a long-term professional, Dr. Madding’s forty-plus years of technical and personal experiences will provide the information you need to excel. Dr. Madding is recognized internationally and has worked as an IR thermographer, trainer, conference chair and courseware developer. He has compiled the vast knowledge he has gained through his travels and on-the-job skills to create From Research to Reliability: Growing Up with Infrared Thermography.

From the author: This book is my technical autobiography, if you will. A friend and colleague once said I had a Ph.D. from SOHK. Reading this, I asked him what SOHK was. I had never heard of it. He replied, “School of Hard Knocks.” I’m not sure this is a degree to be proud of. And I’ve strived to give examples inside that will help keep you from getting such a degree. Learning from others’ “hard knocks” sure beats finding out on your own. These examples also show as technology and knowledge evolve, so can safe practices.

My first experience with IR thermography was airborne infrared imaging of heated water discharges from Wisconsin power plants. From my early airborne IR research, I grew up with IR technology over the years, focusing primarily on the upcoming condition monitoring technology using newly invented, commercially available IR cameras to improve reliability. IR thermographers are problem prospectors. We find thermal anomalies and report them.

Acerca del Autor - Robert P. Madding, Ph.D.

Robert P. Madding, Ph.D., known as: Dr. Bob, is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Rolla, with a BS in Physics, and a Master's and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). He began the first infrared thermography seminar at the University of Wisconsin Extension in 1978. He cofounded the Thermo-sense Conference in 1978 with two other colleagues from UW. In 2000, he founded the InfraMation Conference, the largest annual IR confer-ence for infrared thermographers.

He has presented and published numerous technical papers on infrared thermography applications, as well as contributing chapters to textbooks, such as "Handbook of Applied Thermal Design" and the "Encyclopedia of Optical Engineering." Many of his IR thermography technical papers are in electrical maintenance and building science applications. Bob has over 40 years of experience in infrared thermography applications and training.

While at Maintenance and Diagnostics, an EPRI contractor, he developed advanced applications of IR thermography for condition monitoring of power plants, substations and switchyards.

While Director of the Infrared Training Center, Bob taught classes, developed training course materials for all the ITC course offerings, wrote technical papers on IR thermography applications, wrote soft-ware for electrical load correction of hot spot temperature rise and a power loss calculator that will estimate electrical resistance on problematic operating equipment, such as oil-filled circuit breakers. He’s also written other IR applications software, such as building envelope R-value calculation using IR thermography, all to make the professional thermographer’s life more rewarding.

As of this writing, Dr. Bob is President of RPM Energy Associates, LLC, doing IR thermography consulting work.

Contents

Chapter 1 — Introduction

Chapter 2 — In the Beginning: Airborne IR Thermography Research

Chapter 3 — Airborne IR Thermography Research, Part 2

Chapter 4 — University of Wisconsin Extension (UWEX)

Chapter 5 — IR Camera Manufacturer, Part 1

Chapter 6 — EPRI M&D

Chapter 7 — Safety Lessons Learned Through My Life Experiences

Chapter 8 — IR Camera Manufacturer, Part 2

Chapter 9 — Important Concepts Every IR Thermographer Should Know

Chapter 10 — Gas Detection IR Cameras

Chapter 11 — Remote Smart Monitoring and Diagnostics

Chapter 12 — Summary