Enhancing Safety with Radiometric Surveillance

Our radiometric-enabled COEX thermal camera stations, combined with Synergy, don’t just ‘detect heat’. They interpret the intensity of infrared signals reaching the camera to assign specific temperature values to each pixel. Here’s why this can be so beneficial.

1. Detecting danger in all conditions

Thermal cameras, including radiometric cameras, aren’t dependent on light and deliver clarity in the harshest conditions. However, radiometric cameras have an added advantage. Because they track the intensity of infrared radiation in each pixel, they can more easily compensate for infrared radiation sources that might create ‘scene contamination’ – from air temperature to reflective surfaces. This also means radiometric cameras are better at minimising false alarms.

2. Precise process and equipment monitoring

Radiometric cameras come into their own when precise temperature deviations matter.

For example, even very minor degradation in pipes, valves, electrical connections, or other equipment can cause minute changes in surface temperatures. Radiometric cameras can detect these variations by comparing real-time temperature readings with control levels (pre-set acceptable thresholds). Detecting incidents like spills or leakages is also possible by identifying relative temperature differences within a specific scene.

Early detection of such temperature changes can prevent equipment failures, accidents, and operational issues that may result in downtime.  

3. Real-time alerts based on temperature deviations

The accuracy with which radiometric cameras detect heat variation makes them ideally suited to generating real-time alerts. In Synergy, rules can be created and applied to areas of interest in the camera’s field of view, which can then be alarmed accordingly.

Peak or minimum temperatures can be allocated against regions and programmed to generate alerts if those levels are breached. Also, average, maximum, and minimum temperatures can be set and monitored by pixel in areas of interest and alert based on variation. For example, if region A is 5°C different from region B, this generates an automatic alert.

The principle is used, for example, in detecting hot spots in biomass containers, for ‘pre-fire’ warnings in general, and for flare stack monitoring where relative temperature differences between the flare stack flame or igniter flame area and a control zone, e.g. the sky, can signify issues with burn (function or composition).

4. Remote monitoring – safe distance risk detection

One of the most significant advantages of radiometric cameras is that they enable precise temperature-based monitoring from a safe distance or, with control software like Synergy, in a centralised location. This benefits organisations with large facilities, unmanned sites, or multi-site estates.

For example, utility or oil and gas companies can efficiently, safely and cost-effectively conduct remote inspections of sites or pipelines, etc. and use alerts based on readings to trigger dispatch workflows – with safety teams, maintenance personnel, or engineers sent to the location in question depending on the nature of the reading. Radiometric-triggered alerts can also automate area lockdowns, fire and chemical suppression solutions, and evacuation protocols.