Electronic test and measurement giant Fluke has unveiled what it sees as a new class of infrared temperature measurement device.
Fluke sees it as a half way house between single-point infrared thermometers and high-resolution imagers.
Dubbed Fluke VT02 Visual IR Thermometer, it's being billed as a troubleshooting tool with an infrared heat map – essentially combining the visual insight of a thermal imager, the visual images of a digital camera, but also the point-and-shoot convenience of an IR thermometer.
The company says that conducting inspections for electrical, industrial, HVAC/R and automotive applications will be much faster than an infrared thermometer, which requires multiple readings and manually recorded results.
Instead, the VT02 will instantly detect problems, says the company, using blended thermal and digital imagery. It will also display and save images as full visual, full infrared, or in three blended modes (25, 50, and 75%).
Markers also pinpoint hot and cold spots, indicating the hottest temperature with a red box and the coldest with a blue box. And a temperature reading is provided at the centre point, with images saved to a micro-SD card.
Fluke says development of this tool at the right price point required significant innovation. Using hyper-thin pyroelectric technology, engineers discovered a way to push the limits of the technology, pioneering an array dense enough to create an infrared heat map.
