Those thermal cameras certainly do get around: they’re now being used by an organic waste treatment plant in the Netherlands to ensure the safety of employees.
Orgaworld, who own a number of waste treatment plants across the Netherlands, transform the vast resources of waste produced into the Netherlands into useful products such as energy, fuel and other products such as those that can be used in agricultural scenarios.
The need for a thermal camera arose in their treatment plants as a means of seeing through thick vapours caused by fermenting waste, which tends to happen as a result of the procedure of breaking down organic waste into useful compost.
In order to do this, the firm leaves the waste to basically ferment inside a big hangar. As this happens, the heat inside the waste rises to more than 60 degrees C, which in turn produces a lot of damp, which in turn results in a fog effect during the cold winter inside the hangar.
The heating of the waste inside the hangar basically kills off deadly bacteria that might be festering inside the piles. As an important part of the process of doing this, Orgaworld employs a number of waste loader drivers who are responsible for ‘turning’ the waste, ensuring that all bacteria is heated and killed off.
This is why Orgaworld is so interested in a thermal imaging camera. The firm has recently purchased a number of FLIR PathFindIR cameras on their waste loaders, allowing those who drive the loaders to easily see through the oily vapours that are caused by the fermenting organic waste.
The thermal imaging camera is hooked up to the loader and displays what it sees via a built-in LCD display. Thanks to the way thermal imaging cameras work, the camera allows the driver to see through the fog, and easily identify the piles of heated waste.
FLIR’s PathFindIR cameras are used commonly in applications such as military vehicles, primarily due to their ability to be easily hooked up to existing systems and allow users to see effectively through harsh conditions such as fog, snow, hail and is even suited for desert environments where sandstorms are a problem.
Thermal cameras are able to see through these harsh conditions because they don’t see using natural light. Instead the cameras see IR, infrared, which is outside of the human eye’s visible spectrum. Every object produces heat thanks to the molecules inside moving, and a thermal camera is able to pick up on the differences in temperature within an environment, giving it the ability to effectively see through almost anything.
Except walls. It’s not magic.
