In
order to remain competitive in the global economy, companies must introduce
better and better products to the market at shorter and shorter intervals.
Putting this into effect is to a great extent the responsibility of the
participating R&D departments. Tricky steps in the product development
process must be monitored, analyzed and optimized early and highly precisely.
The thermal imager testo 890 is the ideal tool for
this. It allows the heat allocation of individual components or whole
assemblies to be measured without contact and non-intrusively. The heating and
cooling actions of product components can be remarkably presented as a time
progression thanks to the image sequence capturing. This makes it possible for
the thermal imager testo 890 to ensure product quality as well as the
efficiency of production cycles.
The
challenge.
The main task in R&D is to increase
speed of the development times of new products without making compromises
regarding quality and safety. For this purpose, important process steps must be
precisely monitored and analyzed in order to be able to constantly optimize
them. However, potential sources of error are not always easy to identify, so
that a detailed analysis of the product or certain components is inevitable.
Thermal processes are especially relevant. These can be presented as thermal
images. Static thermal images can provide an insight into the heat
distribution, but it is only an observation of temperature developments as a
time progression which really allows all anomalies to be detected.
This is relevant in electronic
development and other areas. In this field, components such as transistors are
becoming ever smaller and are positioned closer and closer to each other. For
this reason, overheating is difficult to identify, but can have serious
consequences. The developers must therefore always keep an eye on even the
smallest details, and test them for susceptibility to malfunction. A further
difficulty is the lack of clarity as to when a problem occurs, and where. In
R&D, it is crucial to know exactly where and when to look, in order to
detect an anomaly. If, for example, temperature-sensitive components are installed
adjacent to ones with develop heat, there is a latent danger of heat transfer –
the desired function of an individual component or the complete product would
be endangered.
The objective of R&D in the
plastics processing industry is to improve cycle times and simultaneously to
ensure optimum product quality. It is important here that the right mould
release temperature is reached, and the moulds have a temperature at which a
heat distribution is present in the mould which is suitable for avoiding flow
lines or incomplete casting when injecting. The temperatures must also be
monitored during the cooling phase of the moulded object after mould release,
in order to test it for distortion or stretching. In addition to this, very
fine faults in the plastic, such as moulding lines, must be identified
precisely.
And finally, detailed observations of
temperature developments usually generate very large quantities of data, of
which often only a fraction is relevant. Despite this, all data have to be
examined conscientiously, in order to be able to detect all anomalies. A great
deal of time is lost searching – time which could certainly be be better spent
elsewhere.
The solution.
With its numerous innovations and
intuitive functions, the thermal imager testo 890 is the optimum tool for
visualizing all thermal processes in R&D, thus accelerating the product
development process.
Presentation of the
heating process of several processors on a circuit board in a temperature-time
diagram in the IRSoft.
Plastic component with
abnormal heat development in the lower part. This can be traced to insufficient
cooling of a core part in the injection moulding machine tool.
Identify even the smallest faults
Thermography of microelectronics and
other measurement objects with very fine structures requires a high geometric
resolution. This is the only way the smallest structures can be measured
reliably. A detector size of 640 x 480 pixels is indispensable for this
purpose. The testo 890 provides this – and with it, 307200 individual
measurement values. In combination with a 42° lens, the thermal imager thus allows a focus distance of only 10 cm. This
makes the resolution of tiny structures of only 113 μm possible. If the camera
is being used in hand-held operation, the SuperResolution technology can
additionally be applied. This patent-pending innovation from Testo records
several images one after the other in the shortest possible time, and slightly
offset to each other. Using an algorithm, these are then calculated into a
single thermal image with four times the number of measurement values. Even
higher-resolution images than usual – up to 70 μm – are then available when
subsequently viewing the data in the professional analysis software IRSoft.
If you would like to learn more about
Testo SuperResolution technology, simply order the brochure.
Analyze heat development as a time progression
If the developments of temperatures need to be
observed over time, the testo 890 is able to record a sequence from a series of
images. You obtain radiometric image sequences which allow you to evaluate the
temperature in the thermal image for every point in the time progression and at
every position of the measurement object. This avoids time-consuming searches.
The recording is made at individually
configurable intervals, and can be started manually or after a timer countdown.
After finishing the measurement, you can examine the recorded sequences
conveniently at a PC in the professional analysis software IRSoft. If your workplace
provides space for a more extensive experimental set-up with your thermal
imager, you can connect the testo 890 to a PC via USB interface, and use the
fully radiometric video streaming in the IRSoft function "fully radiometric video measurement". Here you benefit among other
things from a higher recording speed of up to 25 Hz.
In order to evaluate temperature
developments as a time progression, you can present measurement points and
profile lines as a temperature-time diagram, which you can then
export as a graph or Excel® file.
Work only with relevant data
If you need to be able to record
thermal images only above a certain thermal limit value, you can benefit from
testo 890's automatic, limit value-based trigger. This triggers the thermal
imager only when a limit value defined by you has been reached. This function
has the further advantage that you only record data which are really relevant
for the development of your product. The viewing of unnecessary measurement
data can be dispensed with, resulting in further time savings.
With the
Testo thermal imager, you can:
• Record image sequences directly in
the imager, thus visualizing thermal processes in high resolution
• Work more efficiently with an
automatic,limit value-based trigger
• Transfer the measured data to
temperature-time diagrams and Excel®
