BuildscanIR™ Network
BuildScanIR™ Network, the largest group of private thermographers in North America, provides resources for those interested in building infrared such as message boards, forums, free articles, training resources, and camera rental programs.
Membership in the network is free and the site is geared toward home inspectors, building inspectors, homeowners, building managers, and service providers looking for information specifically related to building infrared. Members have access to forums message boards, and articles, infrared training, infrared equipment, and expert advice. In addition to the information exchange, the site offers published papers that can be read on-line and access to experts in IR thermography in the building IR community. Also, through special arrangements with infrared camera manufacturers, the network offers a rental pool, camera exchange and targeted training classes, which are geared toward home inspectors with a building background who wish to upgrade their services to include infrared inspections.
Infrared thermography is a building diagnostic technique used to perform surveys of the thermal and moisture envelope of a buildings and is an effective tool for examining the structural components of buildings as well. The building inspection industry is quickly evolving with demands for more in-depth inspection information, such as energy-efficiency and construction inadequacies. In addition, perspective home owners are more concerned about their large investment. “Rapid advances in infrared technology and the manufacturers’ economies of scale, have decreased prices on starter infrared cameras to the sub-$10,000 range and the trend is for even lower prices”, notes Greg Stockton, president of SITS.
At this time, home inspection pricing models do not support providing in-depth thermographic services as part of the inspection fee, but providing IR services could give the home inspector a competitive edge. Becoming part of the network makes infrared thermography an economically viable add-on service by providing the home inspector with access to an infrared camera and the training necessary to get started, until he can build his business to the point that he can afford to buy one. “This is a fantastic opportunity for the NACHI home inspector interested in infrared technology to get trained, rent an imager from a pool and later buy an imager at discount prices”, says Nick Gromicko, founder of NACHI (National Association of Certified Home Inspectors).
SITS was founded in 1989 by Gregory R. Stockton. Mr. Stockton is considered an industry expert with many years of hands-on experience. With a fanatical focus on technical excellence and customer service, he has created a line of services and applications unparalleled in the infrared service industry. He is widely considered an expert and “founding father” in the aerial infrared industry and has refined the application over the years by utilizing the highest quality infrared equipment available as well as fine-tuning the imagery collection and processing systems. The experience of our pilots and thermographers is unmatched in the industry.
For more information, please contact 800-248-7226 or visit www.buildscanir.com. To learn more about infrared thermography and Stockton’s other service divisions, visit the Stockton website, www.stocktoninfrared.com.
BuildScanIR™ Services Spotlight – A Resource for Building Infrared
BuildScanIR Services™
General
The Building Division of Stockton Infrared Thermographic Services, Inc. (BuildSCANIR™) has performed qualitative infrared thermographic surveys of CMU walls on thousands of buildings. We bring to our clients experience, state-of-the-art high-resolution infrared imagers, digital recording equipment, techniques that have been refined over many years and the attitude that we are going to obtain the best imagery possible and produce a professional report in a timely manner. Our deliverable product is the best in the field of infrared thermography on the market today.
Understanding CMU Infrared Imagery
Infrared imagery is often a grayscale picture whose scales (or shades of gray) represent the differences in temperature and emissivity (opposite of reflectivity) of objects in the image. As a general rule, objects in the image that are lighter in color are warmer, and darker objects are cooler. No object in the images is detected via visible light wavelengths (400-700 nanometers) rather, only from infrared wavelengths in the 3000-5000 nanometers or 3-5 micrometers (microns) range. Lights and other relatively hot objects are very evident, but as a result of their heat—not light emissions.
When an image is taken with an infrared camera, it is often recorded onto videotape and digitally saved to an onboard PCMCIA card. The image may be then modified in a number of ways to enhance its value to the end user. In the case of the printout that will be enclosed with this package, the building images will be digitized, saved and converted to TIFF images through the use of FLIR Systems Thermotechnix Thermonitor Pro and Researcher software. The images will then adjusted for color, contrast and brightness before being scaled and placed in a PowerPoint file. The file is then printed on photographic paper by using a photo quality printer. Images are recorded onto a digital videotape via S-Video direct cabling, then recorded onto any format that is desired by the client, for example VHS, 8mm, DVD, mini-DV or CD-ROM.
Infrared Testing Methodology
To find out what is inside a wall, we scan them looking for surface temperature differences. These differences in temperature indicate a difference in mass, since heat energy is gained and released at different rates from objects of different densities. Since we scan the walls with extremely sensitive infrared cameras, we can see the patterns as a ‘picture’ of the different densities. Wall areas that contain grout, insulation or are empty are displayed as a different color (or shade of gray). Since we can “see” all areas of different mass, we can immediately determine if there is a component misplaced, incomplete or missing. When deficiencies are found, we make a matching visual image with a high resolution digital photo camera for reference. The orientation of the building to the Sun, the weather – as much as 3 days prior to the survey, the type of surface, status of the HVAC systems and many other factors make the ‘window’ of uneven heat dissipation different for each building and building component. For this reason, surveying must be done day and night, under varying conditions.
Old-fashioned methods of testing (on-site testing companies, installing Inspection ports, performing destructive testing and X-raying) are generally ineffective and expensive. An experienced BuildSCANIR™ infrared thermographer can successfully survey just about any building, given proper thermal transient conditions. Infrared thermography can be used on the job site as an effective way to improve the quality of construction and the accountability of the contractors. This brings benefits to the building owner, general contractor, structural and thermal engineer and to the building industry in general.
Advantages of BuildSCANIR™ Infrared Testing
- The building owner gets a permanent record of the building, documenting that it is safe, code-compliant and built to the architect’s specifications.
- Confident that what he puts in the specifications will be built and verified, there is no need to ‘over-design’ the building to compensate for inevitable, previously unseen faults. This will save the owner time, money and simplify the construction process.
- General contractors can reduce the costs of inspections, since the building can be verified to specifications at any time during the construction. If faults are discovered, high quality reports can be generated and presented to the responsible party quickly, so that repairs can be carried out in a timely manner.
SITS was founded in 1989 by Gregory R. Stockton. Mr. Stockton is considered an industry expert with many years of hands-on experience. With a fanatical focus on technical excellence and customer service, he has created a line of services and applications unparalleled in the infrared service industry. He is widely considered an expert and “founding father” in the aerial infrared industry and has refined the application over the years by utilizing the highest quality infrared equipment available as well as fine-tuning the imagery collection and processing systems. The experience of our pilots and thermographers is unmatched in the industry.
For more information, please contact 800-248-7226 or visit www.buildscanirservices.com. To learn more about infrared thermography and Stockton’s other service divisions, visit the Stockton website, www.stocktoninfrared.com.
ThermalMapIR™ Spotlight – Get the Big Picture of your Facilities!
ThermalMapIR™
How Can Aerial Infrared Thermal Mapping Help You?
We produce high quality digital thermal and photographic ortho-rectified maps that can be added as layers to your existing CAD and GIS map systems. These maps will help you manage your facilities assets.
We fly over a given area with an infrared camera mounted, oriented looking straight down (NADIR) to the ground. We store the digital IR imagery on a computer hard drive and later copy it to a convenient deliverable, such as a DVD.
The collected and post-processed imagery may then be modified in a number of ways to enhance its value to you, such as adjusting the brightness and contrast and/or zooming in on an area of interest. These processed images can be used to prepare predictive maintenance reports on the various systems.
The farther one can get from the subject of any imaging survey, while maintaining the resolution to achieve the needed image quality, the more useful the data becomes. This is the aerial advantage. But, one needs to obtain very high resolution imagery in order to survey large areas.
It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words; so get the big picture of your facilities and start speaking volumes about its condition.
SITS was founded in 1989 by Gregory R. Stockton. Mr. Stockton is considered an industry expert with many years of hands-on experience. With a fanatical focus on technical excellence and customer service, he has created a line of services and applications unparalleled in the infrared service industry. He is widely considered an expert and “founding father” in the aerial infrared industry and has refined the application over the years by utilizing the highest quality infrared equipment available as well as fine-tuning the imagery collection and processing systems. The experience of our pilots and thermographers is unmatched in the industry.
For more information, please contact 800-248-7226 or visit www.thermalmapir.com. To learn more about infrared thermography and Stockton’s other service divisions, visit the Stockton website, www.stocktoninfrared.com.
AreaScanIR - Aerial Visual and Infrared Imagery
We can help you!
AreaScanIR™ was designed to help you market your roof services and roof products! You will be able to identify potential customers by reviewing image data from recent aerial imagery. You target market to those who need your products or services.
We fly over wide areas that have concentrations of roofs and take high altitude visual and infrared pictures. We then mosaic the pictures together into one image.
You can purchase any area of the US or Canada and select the resolution of imagery that best suits your needs.
What’s new about this?
- All the imagery is new, specific to your request. This is not satellite imagery, stock or outdated pictures.
- We offer infrared imagery, which can identify differences in moisture-contaminated roof substrates and differences in coatings.
- We give you whatever resolution you need, so you don’t have to pay for high-resolution if you don’t need it.
- You have the option to get very high-resolution imagery, even ortho-rectified imagery, if that is what you want.
SITS was founded in 1989 by Gregory R. Stockton. Mr. Stockton is considered an industry expert with many years of hands-on experience. With a fanatical focus on technical excellence and customer service, he has created a line of services and applications unparalleled in the infrared service industry. He is widely considered an expert and “founding father” in the aerial infrared industry and has refined the application over the years by utilizing the highest quality infrared equipment available as well as fine-tuning the imagery collection and processing systems. The experience of our pilots and thermographers is unmatched in the industry.
For more information, please contact 800-248-7226 or visit www.areascanir.com. To learn more about infrared thermography and Stockton’s other service divisions, visit the Stockton website, www.stocktoninfrared.com.
Focus on AITscan Utility Hot Spot FindIR
AITscan Utility Hot Spot FindIR
High Voltage Electric Utility Transmission Lines
Detecting electrical faults on high voltage electrical transmission lines is fairly easy and can be accomplished rapidly from a light aircraft. However, even from short distances, accurate temperatures of electrical faults are impossible to measure [quantify]. There are several problems associated with temperature measurement from the air which include spot size to target distance ratios, reflection of the objects surveyed, having a sufficient load on the line at the time of the survey among others. The spot size to target distance ratio is the number one problem with temperature measurement. Specification writers have not yet realized the seriousness of this problem and continue to ask for quantitative data on fault areas. The fact is that infrared cameras that are in general commercial use today cannot measure accurate temperatures on small objects from distances of 50 feet…much less from reliably safe flying distances. A one-inch (relative size of a transmission line splice) target cannot be measured from that distance, plain and simple, although it can be detected. These spot sizes are unmanageable and inaccurate on any target that does not have a large homogeneous heat signature. The GRE is critical to the measure of spatial resolution in aerial infrared thermography. Nyquist’s frequency theorem states that an object less than two times the size of a sensor’s GRE cannot be resolved for measurement, so a 3×3 pixel or GRE spot is needed for reliably obtaining measurements.
Read more at http://www.aitscan.com/utilityfindir.php
SITS was founded in 1989 by Gregory R. Stockton. Mr. Stockton is considered an industry expert with many years of hands-on experience. With a fanatical focus on technical excellence and customer service, he has created a line of services and applications unparalleled in the infrared service industry. He is widely considered an expert and “founding father” in the aerial infrared industry and has refined the application over the years by utilizing the highest quality infrared equipment available as well as fine-tuning the imagery collection and processing systems. The experience of our pilots and thermographers is unmatched in the industry.
For more information, please contact 800-248-7226 or visit www.aitscan.com. To learn more about infrared thermography and Stockton’s other service divisions, visit the Stockton website,www.stocktoninfrared.com.
Focus on AITscan HTHW Leak FindIR
AITscan HTHW Leak FindIR
How HTHW Leak FindIR™ can help you….
Underground High Temperature Hot Water (HTHW) Loop System lines are almost always readily visible with infrared imaging, even when no notable problems exist. This is due to the fact that no matter how good the insulation, there is always heat loss from the lines which makes its way to the surface. Problem areas are generally quite evident, having brighter white IR signatures that exceed the norm.
Typically, line faults appear as an overheated line or as a large hotspot in the form of a bulge or balloon along the line. Overheated lines often occur when the HTHW line is located in a conduit or tunnel. If there is a leak in the line it will heat up the whole conduit with escaping heat. If a line is buried directly in the ground with an insulating jacket, a leak will usually saturate the insulation, rendering it largely ineffective and will begin to transfer heat into the ground around the leak, producing the classic bulge or balloon-like hot area straddling the line. Some leaks may show up as an overheated manhole or vault cover. If manholes or vaults that contain system control apparatus which are leaking, will often heat the covers to warmer than normal temperatures. Unless these leaks are severe enough to significantly raise the manhole temperature above their normally slightly elevated temperatures, these leaks can be difficult to identify. Some leaks actually appear cold on the ground since water that has made its way to the surface can start evaporating – which cools the ground.
HTHW line imagery can be a little misleading, unless one understands and interprets the relative brightness/temperature of a given line correctly. A HTHW line that is the same temperature from one end to the other that passes under different surfaces and materials can exhibit numerous grayscale or pseudocolor variations. For example, five different apparent temperatures will result from the same temperature line that runs under a grass-covered field, an asphalt parking lot, a concrete loading dock, a gravel-covered area and bare earth pathway.
SITS was founded in 1989 by Gregory R. Stockton. Mr. Stockton is considered an industry expert with many years of hands-on experience. With a fanatical focus on technical excellence and customer service, he has created a line of services and applications unparalleled in the infrared service industry. He is widely considered an expert and “founding father” in the aerial infrared industry and has refined the application over the years by utilizing the highest quality infrared equipment available as well as fine-tuning the imagery collection and processing systems. The experience of our pilots and thermographers is unmatched in the industry.
For more information, please contact 800-248-7226 or visit www.aitscan.com. To learn more about infrared thermography and Stockton’s other service divisions, visit the Stockton website,www.stocktoninfrared.com.
Focus on AITscan Pollution FindIR
AITScan Pollution FindIR
Background
Polluted water contaminating the surface water and drinking water supply has been identified by the EPA as one of the most serious environmental problems facing the United States Leaking sewage collector lines, storm water drain discharges and illegal taps into storm water drainage lines can often be identified by their thermal infrared signatures during certain times of the year. As these sources of pollution leak, seep or empty into creeks, streams, rivers and lakes, their thermal signatures vary from their surroundings and they can be pinpointed accurately from the air.
This flow of liquid typically appears warm as compared to the surface water in a creek, stream, river or lake – particularly during cooler times of the year, due to the relative warmth of the ground a short distance below the surface. Leaks from nearby lines often come to the surface through lateral transfer to a creek, stream, river or lake bed, or to a slope leading down to the surface of the water. These leak areas and the warm plume of liquid joining and flowing downstream with the body of water are visible in the thermal infrared spectrum due to the difference in temperatures of the two liquids. Late fall, winter and early spring are well suited to this type of inspection because of the different water temperatures (ground and surface waters) and because the interference to view by foliage is minimized. Ground water seeps and outfalls of all types are also easily distinguishable for similar reasons.
How Can Pollution FindIR™ Help Me?
Stormwater collection systems are engineered to discharge into surface waters to efficiently drain selected areas. All too often these systems convey pollutants from illicit connections, degraded sanitary sewers and other sources.
Until now, locating these point sources has been a labor-intensive task, often relying on sampling data from sites that may be blocks or even miles from the actual source.
Let Aerial Infrared Thermographers’ Pollution FindIR™ Service do the dirty work for you… at 100 mph!
SITS was founded in 1989 by Gregory R. Stockton. Mr. Stockton is considered an industry expert with many years of hands-on experience. With a fanatical focus on technical excellence and customer service, he has created a line of services and applications unparalleled in the infrared service industry. He is widely considered an expert and “founding father” in the aerial infrared industry and has refined the application over the years by utilizing the highest quality infrared equipment available as well as fine-tuning the imagery collection and processing systems. The experience of our pilots and thermographers is unmatched in the industry.
For more information, please contact 800-248-7226 or visit www.aitscan.com. To learn more about infrared thermography and Stockton’s other service divisions, visit the Stockton website,www.stocktoninfrared.com.
Focus on AITscan Steam Leak FindIR
AITScan Steam Leak FindIR
Steam System Maintenance in General
Steam is used to heat buildings, heat raw materials and finish products in manufacturing and to generate electricity. Steam is not free. There are many opportunities for energy savings. In the US, It costs approximately $20 billion dollars annually to feed the boilers generating steam alone.
A steam system consists of generation, distribution and recovery. In other words, the boilers, the distribution system and the condensate return system. The purpose of an effective steam distribution system is to link the output of the steam generation system to the steam end-use equipment. The distribution system should supply high-quality steam to the end-use equipment at the required rate and pressure, and with the minimum heat loss. The purpose of an effective condensate recovery system is to make the most effective use of all remaining steam and condensate energy after process end-use.
How can Aerial Infrared help?
Checking the boilers and the lines in the steam tunnels are jobs done on the ground, but the distribution and condensate return lines that are direct-buried are best surveyed from the air. In fact, even from high altitudes, steam line inspections are one of the easiest applications for aerial infrared thermographers. Thermal contrast between active steam lines and the surrounding ground are usually good. The entire system can be flown and areas with problems pinpointed and documented.
SITS was founded in 1989 by Gregory R. Stockton. Mr. Stockton is considered an industry expert with many years of hands-on experience. With a fanatical focus on technical excellence and customer service, he has created a line of services and applications unparalleled in the infrared service industry. He is widely considered an expert and “founding father” in the aerial infrared industry and has refined the application over the years by utilizing the highest quality infrared equipment available as well as fine-tuning the imagery collection and processing systems. The experience of our pilots and thermographers is unmatched in the industry.
For more information, please contact 800-248-7226 or visit www.aitscan.com. To learn more about infrared thermography and Stockton’s other service divisions, visit the Stockton website,www.stocktoninfrared.com.
Focus on AITscan Roof Moisture FindIR
AITScan Roof Moisture FindIR
AITscan™ thermographers accomplish high-resolution, surgical aerial IR missions such as flying over flat and low-sloped building to find subsurface roof moisture, discovering pollution sources in creeks, rivers, lakes and streams, finding steam leaks and water leaks in district heating and cooling systems, counting animals like deer for municipalities, flying high voltage transmission lines for power companies, defining the extent of landfill fires and performing many other specialized aerial IR services. AITscan™ has eleven pilots, nine fixed-wing aircraft and one rotor-wing aircraft. The assets are strategically located throughout North America enabling us to provide services to clients anywhere.
Why Aerial Infrared
Performing infrared roof moisture surveys while standing on the roof is not the best method because imagery from a walk-on survey is not as useful as aerial imagery. The same laws of physics apply to both aerial IR and on-roof IR. A dry roof, low winds and no rain are needed on the night of the survey. However, the “window” when the roof is radiating heat differently from wet and dry areas is longer with aerial infrared because slight nuances of temperatures over large areas are recognizable. A high angle of view and high resolution are needed to produce usable imagery. We use large-format infrared cameras, which have at least 512 x 512 staring array detectors (262,144 pixels). From an altitude of 1,200 – 1,500 feet above the roof with over a quarter of a million pixels, the ground resolution element is about six inches square.
Visual photographs are taken earlier in the day or the next day. Both visual and infrared images are used to do the analysis by overlaying the AutoCAD drawing of the roof ‘over’ the digitized photographs and thermographs. The drawings are created indicating areas of suspected moisture contamination. The result is a report where visual, infrared and AutoCAD components (printed and video) are well matched and lined-up.
Fixed-wing aerial infrared imaging provides many advantages over on-roof infrared imaging:
- Access to multiple levels of the roof is not a problem.
- High-angle, straight down infrared images lessen reflection problems. High-resolution images capture large areas at once, making report writing easier and less expensive to produce.
- Plan view allows for infrared images, visual images and AutoCAD drawings to be reconciled closely. As a result, the report is clear, concise and easy to understand (see Figure 4,5,6).
- Plan view imaging allows accurate marking of areas of suspect roof moisture contamination.
- The printed AutoCAD drawings can be used on the roof to paint areas of moisture contamination directly on the roof (after verification), if desired.
- The trending of roof moisture becomes possible.
SITS was founded in 1989 by Gregory R. Stockton. Mr. Stockton is considered an industry expert with many years of hands-on experience. With a fanatical focus on technical excellence and customer service, he has created a line of services and applications unparalleled in the infrared service industry. He is widely considered an expert and “founding father” in the aerial infrared industry and has refined the application over the years by utilizing the highest quality infrared equipment available as well as fine-tuning the imagery collection and processing systems. The experience of our pilots and thermographers is unmatched in the industry.
For more information, please contact 800-248-7226 or visit www.aitscan.com. To learn more about infrared thermography and Stockton’s other service divisions, visit the Stockton website, www.stocktoninfrared.com.
AITscan - Aerial Infrared Thermography
AITscan™ thermographers accomplish high-resolution, surgical aerial IR missions such as flying over flat and low-sloped building to find subsurface roof moisture, discovering pollution sources in creeks, rivers, lakes and streams, finding steam leaks and water leaks in district heating and cooling systems, counting animals like deer for municipalities, flying high voltage transmission lines for power companies, defining the extent of landfill fires and performing many other specialized aerial IR services. AITscan™ has eleven pilots, nine fixed-wing aircraft and one rotor-wing aircraft. The assets are strategically located throughout North America enabling us to provide services to clients anywhere.
Why use Aerial Infrared?
Q1) Why not just walk onto the roof to perform an infrared roof moisture survey?
A1. Why not just fly over it and perform the survey? No site access problems, no ladders required, no image perspective problems, no trouble moving about the roof levels or other obstacles…
Q2) What type of roofs do not lend themselves to aerial infrared inspection?
A2. Standing-seam metal roofs do not lend themselves to aerial IR inspection. Other flat or low-slope roofs that have highly reflective coatings sometimes pose difficulties.
Q3) Do aerial infrared surveys have to take place at night? Why?
A3. No, they don’t have to, but the conditions are generally better and more reliable because the major source of distraction (the Sun) is absent. Also, air traffic is lower, as are wind speeds and turbulence levels.
Q4) Can aerial infrared surveys be used for leak detection? Why or why not?
A4. An Aerial IR survey will greatly assist the leak detection process, but is not leak detection, per-se. We have found that roof leaks are almost exclusively found within the area of water contamination of the roof insulation, which is what our surveys do detect. If roof maintenance personnel conduct a detailed inspection of the indicated water contamination area from the aerial survey, they nearly always locate the leak source. However, there are some leaks that occur from having the water pass directly down through the roof flashing, for instance, at a cracked or ill-fitting skylight, etc.
Read more Questions and Answers on http://www.aitscan.com/AITscan_FAQ.php
SITS was founded in 1989 by Gregory R. Stockton. Mr. Stockton is considered an industry expert with many years of hands-on experience. With a fanatical focus on technical excellence and customer service, he has created a line of services and applications unparalleled in the infrared service industry. He is widely considered an expert and “founding father” in the aerial infrared industry and has refined the application over the years by utilizing the highest quality infrared equipment available as well as fine-tuning the imagery collection and processing systems. The experience of our pilots and thermographers is unmatched in the industry.
For more information, please contact 800-248-7226 or visit www.aitscan.com. To learn more about infrared thermography and Stockton’s other service divisions, visit the Stockton website, www.stocktoninfrared.com.
