Featured Products of The Month

TWO NEW Thermal Imagers From
Land Instruments International

"KEEP AN EYE ON TEMPERATURE"

THE HEAT IS ON-Land FTI Mini The new compact FTI Mini series from has extended the potential for continuous, on-line thermal imaging into entirely new areas - in fact, almost any application where temperatures ranging from -20 to 500°C need to be monitored without contact. It can be controlled remotely from a PC using the dedicated Land Image Processing System (LIPS Mini) software package, which also includes a powerful range of image processing functions and alarm outputs. For example, it can provide data for controlling temperature-critical processes such as the manufacture of X-ray film and many kinds of automotive products; bonding of plastics and other materials; and electrical and electronic component testing. In packaging, applications range from the sealing of pharmaceutical blister packs, inspecting glass and PET containers for flaws at the point of manufacture, and even during filling and corking. As a surveillance tool, the FTI Mini is suitable for established condition monitoring/preventive maintenance duties as well as safety applications such as checking the condition of refractory linings and torpedo cars in steel manufacture. Further examples are the temperature of stored combustible materials such as sulphur, coal, chemicals, powders and sewage which are critical; and thermal images can provide timely warning of all kinds of unwanted incidents, from intruders and crowd incidents to forest fires.

THERMAL IMAGING AT AN ATTRACTIVE PRICE-Land FTI Mv From sophisticated thermal machine vision systems to a veterinary diagnostic instrument - the new miniature FTI Mv thermal imager from Land Instruments International comes with a price tag that should extend interest in process imaging well beyond familiar industrial applications. Less than 250cu m in size and weighing just 1.3kg, the FTI Mv is available in three ranges covering temperatures from -10 to 500 degrees C (14 to 932 degrees F). More ranges are available on request. It can be controlled remotely from a PC using the dedicated Land Image Processing System (LIPS Mini) software package, which also includes a powerful range of image processing functions and alarm outputs. For machine vision applications, it can be linked with vision analysis software such as Labview with IMAQ to create a sophisticated process monitoring system. Although the FTI Mv can handle many production line duties - such as monitoring robotic welds or electronic circuit assemblies - its compactness makes it equally at home in the consulting room or laboratory for medical and veterinary use. Contact Land Instruments International for full details and pricing.

Upcoming Meetings, CFPs etc.

Check the Meetings page for many more meetings and dates

Thermosense XXV (Silver Anniversary Meeting)
April 21-24, 2003, Gaylord Palms Resort & Conference Center, Orlando, Florida, USA. Held as part of SPIE's Aerosense Meeting each Spring, this has become the premier infrared imaging and temperature measurement meeting in the world. In 2003, the ASTM's Sub-committee E20.02 on Radiation Thermometry and ASNT's Infrared Methods Committee will meet again (for the third year in a row-each) during the conference week. The newly formed ISPoT, The International Society of Professional Thermographers,an organization "By Thermographers and For Thermographers" will have a presence at the meeting at to continue their organizational activities; look for details at the meeting.

Call For Papers

InfraMation 2003,
"The Thermographers' Conference", will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada from October 13 - 16, 2003 (see Meetings page). Abstracts of 150 - 250 words, with brief principal author bio, due by May 15, 2003. Notification of acceptance will be made by June 15, 2003.
Papers are sought on the following topics: - Condition monitoring / Predictive, preventive maintenance - Cost-avoidance and cost-saving programs - Buildings, infrastructure and environment - Non Destructive Test (NDT) applications - Process monitoring, control and automation - Research and development - Biological and medical studies - Quality control and assurance - Product design verification - Night vision (security, search and rescue, firefighting, law enforcement) - Materials flaw detection and evaluation - Electronics and microelectronics inspection
Send abstracts by email to:
abstracts@inframation.org,
or by snail mail to:
InfraMation 2003 Abstracts
Infrared Training Center
16 Esquire Rd.
North Billerica, MA 01862 USA

International Workshop on Radiation Thermometery. Theme :“On line Radiation Measurements of True Temperature of Nonblack Bodies” will be held in Moscow from November 3 to November 6, 2003. Prof. Dariy Svet is involved in organizing the program, plus there is no registration fee. Please send presentation abstracts by e-mail to lena@mayer.ru and receive details in return.

NEW Links of Interest -March 2003

Distributors and Multiple Product Line Vendors Page

Tech Instrumentation (USA)
Tech Instrumentation offers a extensive variety of temperature measuring instrumentation from inexpensive bi-metalic and glass thermometers to rugged, precise industrial thermometers. Their product selection includes popular thermometers for food service, HVAC, petro-chemical, education and many others. They also manufacture custom thermocouple, thermistor and RTD probes designed just for the application. They also offer repair, custom modification, private labeling, custom imprinting, calibration and certification of most products.

Bimetallic Thermometer Vendors Page

Ashcroft Brand (Dresser Instrument)(USA)
Hermetically sealed, silicone liquid filled, 1% full-span accuracy, rugged, reliable, round dial bimetal thermometers for a host of HVAC, process and other uses up to 800 Deg. F..

Thermowell Vendors Pages

Ashcroft Brand (Dresser Instrument)(USA)
Thermowells for bimetal and filled system thermometers.

Thermo-Electra b.v.(Netherlands)
"Your partner in temperature sensors"-Industrial Thermowells to accompany their specialty thermocouples and RTDs.

RTD Vendors Page

Thermo-Electra b.v.(Netherlands)
"Your partner in temperature sensors"-Industrial thermocouples RTDs and Thermowells.

Xian Diamond (China). Supply RTDs and assemblies.

Links Page

Anter Corporation(USA)
Makes instruments and provides in-house testing services for measuring the thermal properties of materials, such as thermal expansion, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity. The website provides a compliation of data sheets, brochures, and descriptions of thermophysical properties measuring instruments produced.

Gaging.com (USA)
(For people who measure physical dimensions of length, width and height)Quality Gaging Products, Quality Service.

The Learning Pit
A must visit site for PLC and Ladder Logic Simulators, Programmable Software Simulations, Course Materials, Curriculum and Support For Trades and Technology Training.

Thermistor Vendors Page

EPCOS, Inc.(USA & Germany)
Thermistors (few words-lots of products)

Thermocouple Vendors Page

Industrial Pyrometer and Supply Co.,(USA)
Claiming to be the world's oldest manufacturer of thermocouple and extension lead wires,  IPS also manufactures thermocouple heads, MgO or MI cable, RTDs, protection tubes, thermowells and insulators.

Thermo-Electra b.v.(Netherlands)
"Your partner in temperature sensors"-Industrial thermocouples to accompany their specialty RTDs and Thermowells .

Thermography Resources: Organizations & Meetings Page

ISPoT, The International Society of Professional Thermographers,
A new organization "By Thermographers and For Thermographers" will be seeking additional members at the forthcoming April SPIE Thermosense meeting and exhibition at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando. An international Board of Directors has been elected and a website set up at www.professionalthermographer.org . The website has a sign up form for members and volunteers plus a new message board. You can also join their email forum by sending an email to ISPoT-subscribe@topica.com . The list is moderated by Jack Kleinfeld of Kleinfeld Technical Services, Inc.

Dewpoint & Humidity Vendors Page

JLC International (USA)
A U.S.A. based dynamic master distributor marketing specialty European humidity, temperature and other instrumentation products for the control, measurement and test market places.

The next issue will feature the latest product news from the 2003 ThermoSense meeting and exposition from the dynamic world of IR Thermal Imaging. This is one of the most dynamic areas of temperature sensor and measurement innovation and certainly is "where the action is" in temperature sensors. Our companion eNewsletter will feature a review of the ThermoSense Technical meetings and presentations.

COMMENTS and Alexa™ SITE RANKINGS

Notice to PR and Ad staffs in equipment and service companies:

Now you can list your organization and your new product or services or meetings information at the Temperature Sensor Community web site, www.tempsensor.net. It is a self-service feature that anyone who joins as amemebr can access. Membership is free!

Listed below are the Alexa Web site rankings at the end of March and the preceeding two months. The rose color indicates that a site became less popular during the month, the green or aqua indicates more popular. The numbers provide a quantitative measure of the site popularity according to the Alexa ranking system. Needless to say, lower values mean more popular (like:"Yahoo is Number 1!").

Green is the dominant color for last month. That's good news, and an upward trend is clearly indicated . There is even more optimism on the right side of the table, however, with the continued increases in the number of green cells for March. We can't help but note the +11% increase in popularity of our main site, Temperatures.com. That, combined with an 11% drop at Sensors magazine, vaulted our site popularity past Sensor's Magazine for the first time ever. Several of the increases were huge: JMS-SE jumped an amazing +51.6% while FLIR was up by just over +30%. The only significant negative note was the sudden dropof Land Instruments after three months of slippage and a significant upturn last month. All their major competitors were up for the past month. Could there be some changes underway at the Land Site?

According to www.netcraft.com March's 2003 survey they received responses from 39,174,349 web sites accessible on the Internet. In context of a popularity rating, a position of 1 or 2 million doesn't seem so bad. However the rankings of sites of similar organizations competing for Web visitors and exposure does seem to indicate at least relative success in attracting visitors.

Note, too, that the links indicated by the underline and color of the indivdual web site entries in the table below now take you to the corresponding Alexa report page for each site.

We have also joined with Alexa as an Amazon Associate web site (Amazon owns Alexa) to offer an Alexa Toolbar for your IE web browser, if you wish to use Alexa on a regular basis yourself. See the small banner ad at the bottom of the page to access it. It is one small way that you can help support About Temperature Sensors.

From the above Alexa ratings you can see that our Web site consistently achieves a lower ranking (meaning it is more popular) than many vendors of temperature sensors, with the major exceptions of GlobalSpec and Omega Engineering, two gigantic web sites.

Our site passed Sensors Magazine in March after passing ASNT, The American Society for Non-Destructive Testing, in January and continues to grow in popularity. These gains on our site were made using our own knowledge of the Web and the methods we have learned to gain ratings. If you check most of the search engines for" temperature sensors" or "temperature measurement" our site is usually number one, or close to it in non-advertiser rankings.

Our second site, www.tempsensor.net only available on the net since last November, has already reached an Alexa popularity ranking that places it between ASNT and Sensors Magazine. That means it has already passed all the major equipment and services vendors, just like our main site. We think we know how to get high rankings and good directory placements! If your organization wants help in improving its Web marketing and popularity contact us at web@temperatures.com and ask for a free estimate.

If you only need more exposure of your organization's name and special capabilities, consider a banner ad on one of our websites. Our page view rates are high and prices reasonable. We have a two for one special that runs until May 30th.