Radiation detector having temperature readout

A radiation detector comprising:

• a housing;
• a radiation sensor within the housing;
• a nosepiece which is an external part of the housing of the detector at the outer end of which is a cup made of low emissivity reflective material, the cup having an aperture therein and said radiation sensor being positioned behind the aperture, wherein the cup is a conical depression with the tip end of the conical cup pointing inward of said nosepiece toward said radiation sensor and the tip end forming an angle between 60 degrees and 150 degrees, the radiation sensor having a conical field of view with an angle less than the angle of the conical cup, and said cup eliminates the effect of the actual emissivity of the target surface by reflecting substantially all emissions from the target surface back to that surface, causing the target surface to act as a black body with emissivity of about one.

A radiation detector comprising a cup of low emissivity reflective material at the end of a nosepiece and having a cup aperture therein and a radiation sensor and temperature compensation sensor positioned behind the aperture, wherein the nosepiece is comprised substantially of aluminum and is theremally connected to a main housing of a radiation detector which serves as a thermal heat sink, the cup is a conical depression having a tip end angle between 60 degrees and a 150 degrees, the field of view of the radiation detector being less than the angle of the conical cup, the radiation sensor and tepmperature compensation sensor are mounted in a casing of low conductivity material which is positioned within the nosepiece behind the cup aperture, and said cup eliminates the effect of the actual emissivity of the targe surface by reflecting emissions from the target furface back to that surface so as to cause the target surface to act as a black body with emissivity of about 1.

A temperature sensor system for measuring the temperature of a moving surface comprising:

• a radiation detector having a housing,
• a cup of low emissivity reflective material at the end of a nose piece which is an external part of the housing the cup having an aperture therein and there being a radiation sensor positioned behind the aperture, wherein the cup is a conical depression having a tip end which forms an angle, between 60 degrees and 150 degrees, the radiation detector having a field of view less than the angle of the conical cup, and means for mounting the radiation detector such that a small gap is maintained between the base of the conical cup and the moving surface, the gap and the conical cup being dimensioned such that e.sub.1 is less than 0.20 where ##EQU3## where e.sub.m is the actual emissivity of the cup, A.sub.s is the area of the cup aperture, A.sub.g is the area of the gap, A.sub.1 is the area of the reflective surface and A.sub.2 is the area of the target surface adjacent to the cup, and said cup elminates the effect of the actual emissivity of the target surface by reflecting substantially all emissions from the target surface back to that surface causing the target surface to act as a black body with emissivity of about one.

A method of scanning and detecting the temperature of a target surface comprising:

• scanning the target surface from a distance with a hand held detector, the detector comprising a cup having a low emissivity reflective surface, an aperture therein, a radiation sensor positioned behind the aperture and a temperature compensation sensor, to obtain a gross temperature indication of the target surface which includes the effects of background radiation and the emissivity of the surface both detected by the sensor;
• and placing the cup against the target surface to detect the actual temperature of the surface without the effects of background radiation and surface emissivity, the cup eliminating the background radiation and causing the radiation detected to be substantially independent of the emissivity of the target surface by reflecting substantially all emissions from the target surface back to that surface such that the target surface acts as a black body with emissivity of about 1.