Although thermal imaging is primarily thought of as an aid to manufacturing efficiency, it is also a valuable ally in any kind of research work where temperature must be kept under surveillance, such as semiconductor development, telecommunications and PCB testing.

Non-contact temperature measurement specialist Land Instruments International had such applications in mind when it designed its high-performance, low-cost FTI Mv thermal imager, currently the subject of a patent application.

The latest infrared detector and signal processing technologies have been brought together inside the imager's compact body to offer all the features expected of a state-of-the-art instrument.

Remote control, a choice of alarm outputs and a powerful range of image processing routines - including five colour palettes, zoom and noise filtering among them - are all available through the dedicated LIPS Mini software.

Easy to install, the FTI Mv can be linked to vision analysis software such as Labview with IMAQ to create a sophisticated process monitoring system.

In cases where continuous calibration of the image is necessary, the imager can be teamed with Land's new P100i high stability black body temperature reference source to create the most accurate on-line radiometric thermal imaging system currently available.

When placed in the thermal imager's field of view, the P100i provides continuous on-line calibration (patent applied for), giving temperature accuracy of better than ±0.5°C and repeatability of 0.2°C, traceable to ITS-90. www.landinst.com