The infrared resolution is simply tremendous

The engineering firm Adler in Herten in the German Ruhr area is using the top-of-the-range FLIR T1020 handheld thermal imaging cameras for maintenance applications.
  The engineering firm Adler has been providing highly qualified industrial thermal imaging services since 1996. The focus here is on thermographic inspections of electrical switching and distribution systems in all voltage ranges. However, Martin Adler’s engineering services also include thermography of mechanical equipment and components as well as measurements in industrial settings for process analysis, diagnosis, process optimisation, product development and research, and the inspection of machines, equipment and insulation. In addition, he advises clients in the planning of installed, user-specific infrared measurements and offers problem analysis and troubleshooting for already installed IR-measuring systems.
20 years of thermography experience Of course Martin Adler’s many years of practical experience are the most important factor here. There is hardly an industrial thermographer in Germany, who has this much experience. Even during his studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Gelsenkirchen at the beginning of the 90’s, Martin Adler programmed his own evaluation software for infrared measurements at the laboratory for energy technology. “There were no standardised solutions at the time and therefore individual initiative was required,” Adler recalls.
From the passion he developed as a student, he then established his own company in 1996, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in April this year. Even back then, the focus was on electrothermography. “It became clear to me: there was a great interest in thermographic inspection in the industrial sector, but there was a fairly meagre selection of qualified services. In 1996, there was still no recognised qualification for thermographers in Germany and only two years later the first certifications were introduced here according to the American standard,” he said.
Measurements conducted by inexperienced service providers were often not reproducible and some of his competitors offered little more than colourful pictures with their infrared cameras. Martin Adler recalls a particularly horrific scenario involving an energy provider: “An inexperienced thermographer had inspected insulators on high voltage lines on an extremely sunny day and thus found a high number of overheated units. However, most of the insulators were perfectly in order, and the man simply did not have the necessary experience. Outdoor recordings often simply do not provide useful results in strong sunlight. Such faulty inspections at that time brought the whole industry into disrepute,”
Based on his studies, Martin Adler took a very different and much more systematic approach, which he has remained faithful to. Regularly repeated inspection of critical components under reproducible conditions plays the decisive role here. “Back then, I first had to gain the confidence of my customers,” Adler recalls. “Often a whole year passed between the first phone call, the first appointment, a demonstration of the technical measurement possibilities, internal coordination between the customer’s technicians and the purchasing department, and the actual order.” And the initial investment of 120,000 Deutsche marks for a thermal imaging camera from FLIR’s predecessor company Agema didn’t make the start any easier for Martin Adler. It took several years to fully amortise this investment and Martin Adler used the time to develop his excellent reputation. To this day, this reputation obliges him to use the best available thermal imaging camera model.
The FLIR T1020With the T1020, Martin Adler is using the absolute top of the range of industrial thermography from FLIR. “The detector’s IR resolution is huge,” explains Adler enthusiastically “which of course increases efficiency: On a significantly sharper and more detailed thermal image, you can discover problems much more easily and with much more certainty. You can even discover small anomalies, which may not have been recognisable with the other camera or a lower resolution.”
And camera operation has also become increasingly easy over the years according to Martin Adler: “This reduces the error rate, not only during camera usage, but also in the evaluation phase.” Adler used to always have a notepad and pen ready to write down the errors found. “It’s a familiar problem: the notes cannot always be clearly assigned later on.

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