Polished-rod thermal imaging system for preventing failures in the operation of a sucker rod pump

A method for detecting temperatures and positions of a rod on a wellhead to prevent failures, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) providing a device comprising:
• a housing having a front end, a back end, and an interior cavity;
• a clamp to secure the housing to a post of the well;
• a thermal radiation sensor secured to the front end of the housing;
• a visual radiation sensor secured to the front end of the housing, the visual radiation sensor is vertically aligned with the thermal radiation sensor;
• a microcontroller system placed in the interior cavity of the housing, the microcontroller system includes a microcontroller, a non-volatile memory, and a serial interface in electronic communication;
• a position device placed in the interior cavity of the housing;
• a wireless device placed in the interior cavity of the housing;
• output device placed in the interior cavity of the housing;
• wherein the microcontroller is in electronic communication with the serial interface for communicating with the visible radiation sensor, the thermal radiation sensor, the output module, the wireless module, and the position module, wherein the visual radiation sensor and the thermal radiation sensor are horizontally aligned a central point on the rod to allow correlation of images acquired to be performed using the central point as a reference for the correlation;
• b) capturing a thermal image of the rod by using the thermal radiation sensor;
• c) capturing a vertical position image of the rod by using the visual radiation sensor;
• d) transferring the thermal image and the vertical position image to microcontroller;
• e) correlating the thermal image and the vertical position image based on the central point to detect a position of the well head;
• f) comparing the position of the well head with stored positions in previous thermal and position images of the rod;
• (g) determining a pumping condition based on the comparing step;
• (h) sending a signal to the output module to emit an alarm if the pumping conditions are outside a required range to turn off the pump.