You’ve just got your brand new thermal camera. It’s still all shiny, full of promise and completely calibrated for accurate testing. It’ll last a good long while, but what you always need to remember is that – eventually – the accuracy of the camera is likely to degrade.
It’s just one of those things. Like all machines, thermal cameras are a bit prone to going a bit – ahem- wonky, every now and again. Different factors ranging from continuous use wearing down parts of the camera to damage by dust and other particles can have an adverse effect on the thermal imaging camera’s delicately balanced technology.
Once this balance is offset, this means that you thermal camera is no longer correctly calibrated, and as a result, will routinely start to produce results that aren’t all that accurate.
When working in areas that basically completely rely on accurate thermographic readings, the fact that your thermal camera may not be accurately detecting any problems should be something you’re concerned about.
That’s why it really is of the utmost importance to complete yearly calibration of your thermal camera by a qualified technician.
Depending on the manufacturer you buy your thermal imaging camera from, many of them will be able to not only calibrate your tester, but also fix any faults and upgrade your software to the latest version.
The calibration tester will also fully analyze your camera’s abilities; if there’s a problem, the process will be able to easily detect what it is and the person carrying out the calibration will be able to fix the problem for you.
Some manufacturers, such as FLIR, have an in-house team of calibration experts who can turn your thermal camera back into the accurate source of thermal measurements that it used to be.
