A new player has arrived in the booming thermal imaging camera market with HIKMICRO. The dynamic Chinese company offers industry-leading thermal imaging sensors, cores, modules, cameras and total solutions. The company maintains an in-house engineering team for thermal sensor development, testing and manufacturing. Emphasis is placed on a strict quality management system with functional testing at 100%. A highly automated manufacturing system ensures production consistency and capacity. The group provides local service and worldwide support, a warranty of 3 years for the whole device and even 10 years for the sensor. All products are now available on the European market.
In addition to various handheld thermographic cameras such as the E series, B series, M series or G series, HIKMICRO also produces a thermal imaging camera module for smartphones (Mini series) and special analysis software. An important camera model for entry-level industrial maintenance (but also for applications in construction thermography) is the M‑Series with the models M10 and M30. With its resolution of up to 384 x 288 (110,592) pixels, it offers outstanding image quality.
The manual focus of the M‑Series ensures that the thermal image is always sharp and temperature measurements are accurate. Using the physical focus knob, the focus can be intuitively changed manually to view objects in sharp focus at different distances. Video recording at the full frame rate of 25 Hz is also possible on the removable SD card (up to 16GB). Images can also be transmitted via wifi.
In addition to its uncooled thermal imager (vanadium oxide FPA, NETD <40 mK or better), the M‑Series has an 8 megapixel visible light camera that adds important details to thermal images in fusion mode (IR and visual superimposed) or in picture-in-picture mode. The M‑Series offers very flexible measurement options, such as central point, hot point, cold point, 10 point presets, 1 line preset, or 3 frame presets. Four isotherm modes are available, including above, below, interval and isolation alarms.
Included are two rechargeable batteries and a charging cradle, so users have plenty to spare even for longer measurement runs. Its 3.5‑inch touchscreen provides good visibility as well as high contrast even in direct sunlight for optimal ease of use.