Thermal Imaging in a High Temperature Furnace
AssigneeAir Products and Chemicals, Inc.
InventorsYan Zhao, Xianming Jimmy Li
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for thermal imaging of an interior space of a high temperature furnace through an opening in a wall of the furnace. An outer housing houses at least a portion of a rigid borescope. The outer housing has a port for aspirating ambient air through the outer housing to cool the rigid borescope and passing the air through a hole at the end of the outer housing and into the furnace. A camera is operatively connected to a rigid borescope but is located such that it is isolated from the air passing through the outer housing.
Claims20
An apparatus for thermal imaging of an interior space of a high temperature furnace through an opening in a wall of the high temperature furnace, the apparatus comprising:
- a camera comprising an optical sensor;
- a rigid borescope comprising an elongated housing having a viewing end and a sensor end, and a multi-element relay lens assembly within the elongated housing having at least two optical pieces for directing a real image viewed by the rigid borescope to the camera, the viewing end comprising a lens, the sensor end of the rigid borescope operatively connected to the camera;
- an outer housing having a sensor end portion and a viewing end portion and defining an interior space within the outer housing, the interior space containing at least portion of the rigid borescope, the outer housing and the at least a portion of the rigid borescope defining a passage therebetween, the sensor end portion of the outer housing corresponding to the sensor end of the rigid borescope, the viewing end portion of the outer housing corresponding to the viewing end of the borescope, the viewing end portion defining a hole in fluid communication with the passage, the hole cooperatively arranged to permit the real image to pass to the viewing end of the rigid borescope, the outer housing having a port operatively disposed between the sensor end portion and the viewing end portion, the port in fluid communication with the passage, wherein the camera is operatively disposed outside the passage and outside the port;
- and
- a partitioning member operatively disposed to obstruct fluid communication between the passage and the camera.
A method for obtaining thermal images in a high temperature furnace over an extended period of time, the method comprising:
- installing an assembly for thermal imaging on the high temperature furnace, the assembly for thermal imaging comprising
- a camera comprising an optical sensor;
- a rigid borescope comprising an elongated housing having a viewing end and a sensor end, and a multi-element relay lens assembly within the elongated housing having at least two optical pieces for directing a real image viewed by the rigid borescope to the camera, the viewing end comprising a lens, the sensor end of the borescope operatively connected to the camera;
- an outer housing having a sensor end portion and a viewing end portion and defining an interior space within the outer housing, the interior space containing at least a portion of the rigid borescope, the outer housing and the at least a portion of the rigid borescope defining a passage therebetween, the sensor end portion of the outer housing corresponding to the sensor end of the rigid borescope, the viewing end portion of the outer housing corresponding to the viewing end of the rigid borescope, the viewing end portion defining a hole in fluid communication with the passage, the hole cooperatively arranged to permit the real image to pass to the viewing end of the borescope, the outer housing having a port operatively disposed between the sensor end portion and the viewing end portion, the port in fluid communication with the passage, wherein the camera is operatively disposed outside the passage and outside the port;
- aspirating air from outside the outer housing into the port in the outer housing, passing the air from the port through the passage and over an external surface of the elongated housing of the rigid borescope, passing the air from the passage over the lens and out the hole in the viewing end portion of the outer housing and into the high temperature furnace wherein the air does not pass over the camera when being passed from the port to the high temperature furnace;
- and
- measuring temperature information by:
- directing a plurality of real images viewed by the rigid borescope to the camera;
- capturing a plurality of images corresponding to the plurality of real images wherein each image of the plurality of images comprises pixel data;
- and
- processing the pixel data to obtain the temperature information for each of the plurality of images.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.