3239601_6250_ENG_A_W

industrial processes on a roll

Application Note

Testing Functions Case Study

Mitch Curtin of Helios Coatings Inc., uses the 568 IR Thermometer and the included 80PK-1 Bead Probe to monitor the fluid temperature of a soap bath solution used in the cleaning of raw wheels before the first primer process.

From Chevy rims to Chèvre cheese

Tool: Fluke 568 Infrared/Contact Thermometer

Testers: Dave Summers, Facility and Process Engineering Mgr, Helios Coatings, Inc.; John Cummings, Maintenance Supervisor, at Vermont Butter and Cheese Co.; Rob Darr, Electrical Engineer, Advanced Filtration Systems Inc.

Tests: Checking temperature

during baking and curing processes, verifying thermostats, recording base-line temperatures, electro-mechanical troubleshooting

Whether you’re engineering a new, environment-friendly metal coating process or managing the ancient alchemy of cheese, suc-cess often boils down to measur-ing and controlling temperature. No wonder FlukePlus members were hot to enter a members-only contest to beta test the new Fluke 568 Infrared Thermometer. In the world of infrared non-contact thermometers, the Fluke 568 is the über-tool. It’s engi-neered to measure a wider range of temperatures than most other infrareds (-40 °C to 800 °C /

-40 °F to 1472 °F), while offering users more features controlled through an intuitive graphi-cal display and menu. Its 50:1 distance-to-spot ratio allows users to measure smaller targets

from farther away. It’s compat-ible with standard miniconnec-tor K-type thermocouples, for applications where direct contact measurement is required.

Using the soft key control but-tons, users can matter-of-factly adjust emissivity for differing test surfaces to improve their mea-surement accuracy, activate the built-in alarms, or start data log-ging (up to 99 data points). The unit has a built-in tripod mount for hands-free, stationary moni-toring and logging applications. Users can power the 568 and log data directly for display with the included FlukeView® Forms soft-ware if they connect the 568 to a laptop with the included USB cable. Industrial use? No prob-lem. Like its little brother, the new Fluke 566, the Fluke 568 is engineered to withstand a 4.8 foot drop.

From the Fluke Digital Library @ www.fluke.com/library

The go-to guy

His official title at Helios Coat-ings, Inc. is Manager of Facility and Process Engineering. Infor-mally, Dave Summers of Canton, Ohio is known as “the go-to guy.” He’s been involved with technology since he built an FM radio while in third grade. He installed a digital dashboard in his 1951 Mercury back in 1980. At Helios, his challenge is to maintain precise control over the proprietary process his com-pany uses to finish car wheels and hubcaps. The core of the company’s business is refinish-ing wheels, but auto makers are eyeing the process for OEM work because of its low environmental impact and durability.

“We use green technology to do chrome-like finishes on alu-minum rims,” said Summers. said. A veteran of the powder coating industry, Summers knows how important temperature control can be when baking finishes onto temperature-sensitive parts like plastic hubcaps. Parts have to be cleaned, primed, finish coated using a vacuum metal deposition process, and finally clear coated for protection. “During the process we use an infrared heater to cure the coatings,” he said. “Temperature is critical as some of the center caps that are coated will warp easily. Attempts with a stationary sensor have failed miserably.” A try at curing one set of high-end rims failed when the plastic caps curled up.

“In our lab environment, the Fluke 568 absolutely kicks ass,” Summers said. “I really enjoyed having the opportunity to play with it and that’s what I call it—playing with it—because I abso-lutely had a blast with it.”

The rims and caps go through an infrared curing process, then through a high-tech ultraviolet system.

“The whole idea is not to heat your aluminum above 200 °C (400 °F)—you’ll lose the temper in the wheel,” Summers said. “There’s an art to doing it with-out destroying the aluminum itself, so we’re real careful about temperatures. We don’t just

throw them in a baking oven. It’s all in timing, distance and inten-sity of the radiation.” Monitoring that precise heat-ing process was one place where the Fluke 568 paid off for Sum-mers. The lab’s experimental infrared curing setup includes a built-in thermometer, but Summers discovered that hand-holding the Fluke 568 at approx-imately 18 in (45 cm) from the slowly-rotating parts delivered far more accurate readings.

The angle of the rise of the curve is the important part of the process. The smaller the angle of rise, the less chance of any bubbles forming in the finish. If this condition happens, the underlying area will do what is known in this industry as “out-gassing.” “When we are using the IR heater we want a slow rise in surface temperature, “says Summers,” so the coating does not surface cure before the underlying areas have a chance to cure. In the case of this test rim, we were looking at getting the surface of the rim to 200 °F (93 °C) from ambient temperature to prepare the rim for a UV bake. The UV heaters have a fan cooling system which could disturb the coating surface, so a prebake with the IR is necessary to gel the coating on the rim.”

2 Fluke Corporation Fluke 568 Infrared Thermometer keeps industrial processes on a roll

Holey schmoley!

A taste—and tests—for

“When I found out what that 568 fine cheese

did, I was like, holey schmoley, this thing’s like a Godsend,” Summers said. “As far as the menu, it’s extremely intuitive.” Adjusting the emissivity for accu-rate readings on different materi-als required only a few touches on the control buttons. “A three-year-old could do it,” he said. He also experimented with the FlukeView Forms software that comes with the Fluke 568. “The software was just simple and intuitive,” he said. “Most of the software I deal with on a daily basis is just a pain. You need a copy of ‘War and Peace,’ for a manual. This, I was up and run-ning and able to do a bake curve in 30 seconds.” A bake curve dis-plays the rate at which parts in the finishing process are heated and cooled over time. Gradual heating and cooling delivers the desired quality. ”Heating a clear coat too fast will yellow the fin-ish, Summers said.”

The unit’s two-level backlight also won praise. “Every piece of equipment I own has lights on the screen, because there’s a lot of times when you’re in the dark,” he said.

A lifelong Fluke user, Sum-mers said the Fluke 568 shows the kind of performance he relies on in his other Fluke tools. “My life depends on Fluke—that’s how I look at it,” he said. “When I’m going into a cabinet to troubleshoot and I’ve got to do it live, I’ve got to depend on the tools I’m dealing with. My meters are Fluke meters. I put my life in Fluke’s hands, and they take good care of me.”

The processes he tracked were way different, but temperature control was equally important for John Cummings, Maintenance Supervisor at Vermont Butter and Cheese Co. in Websterville, Vt. He wasn’t refinishing Chevy rims, but watching over the plant producing Chèvre goat’s milk cheese and other fine European-style cheeses and butter.

Both the quality and safety of dairy products requires precise control of the timing and tem-perature at each step in the pro-duction process. A veteran in the dairy products business, Cum-mings worked for Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Cabot Creamery Cooperative before moving to Vermont Butter and Cheese. He used the Fluke 568 to double-check the sensors and controls built into the production equipment at Vermont Butter and Cheese.

“It’s very high quality gourmet Food Channel type cheeses,” Cummings said. “We’ve got a climate control system that con-trols temperature and humidity, we have an aging room, a drying room, and I would just go in and double check the temperatures there to make sure it matched up with the computer. Sometimes you get a drift on those.”

And was the interface easy to use? “Sí,” Cummings joked. “I used the language options.” The Fluke 568 offers six language choices for the user interface. Having been shipped to him

before the 568’s test process was completely in place, his test unit was out of calibration, but the deviation was consistent so Cum-mings adjusted to compensate. Beta-testers sometimes have to be flexible.

James Solomon monitors the surface temperature of a wheel that just had a primer coat applied in the spray booth in Helios Coatings research lab.

Mitch Curtin of Helios Coatings Inc., uses the 568 IR Thermometer to check the exit temperature of wheels after a metal primer coat-ing is cured in a UV oven.

3 Fluke Corporation Fluke 568 Infrared Thermometer keeps industrial processes on a roll

“I thought it was extremely easy to use and well built,” he said. “I liked the thermocouple attachment—it came with a probe. I plugged that in to do a record in the freezer, just to dou-ble-check that. There are inte-grated thermostats in the walls, but they’re off a few degrees.” Cummings used the ther-mometer both for process checks and for preventive maintenance applications: recording base-line temperatures on conveyors, detecting a gearbox that was heating up and identifying a lug on a power panel that required tightening. Additional checking turned up a problem with one of the plant’s cooling units.

Ten pounds of cheese in a five-pound bag

“When I did the Mascarpone (a type of cream cheese), that goes in at approximately 180 degrees; by the time it hits the cooler it’s probably about 160. Then it goes into a 35 degree cooler with high air flow, to drop it down. After a half hour it should show a 25 degree temperature drop. Last week I only got a 10 degree drop. It turned out my cooling unit was frosted up; we were low on refrigerant and had a small leak. We got that fixed and the product was fine.”

The pre-holiday period in December is a busy time for Ver-mont Butter and pushes storage needs beyond capacity. “We’re battling the 10 pounds in a

five-pound bag syndrome,” Cum-mings said. To meet the need for storage, refrigerated trailers are stationed outside the plant to supplement the small in-house cooler. Cummings used the Fluke 568 to spot check temperatures in those units. “They’ve got a thermostat, but I went inside to check the actual reading by measuring the temperature of the products in the trailers,” he said. “It’s something that I trust,” Cummings said of the Fluke 568. “I know the meter’s right, and it became part of my routine.”

Verifying power-coats

In Champaign, Ill., Advanced Filtration Systems Inc. makes oil, fuel and hydraulic fluid filters for Caterpillar diesel equipment. Electrical engineer Rob Darr put the Fluke 568 to work verifying temperatures achieved in baking powder-coated filter canisters. He also checked temperatures generated in the exothermic chemical reaction when ure-thane components are mixed and cured. The materials are heated and poured through a mixing nozzle into a mold, then the fil-ter canister is set into the mold before the material hardens.

“I was checking the mold tem-perature,” Darr said. “We have to pre-heat the molds prior to dispensing the urethane. If you don’t maintain the temperature you won’t get a good product. The reaction won’t happen prop-erly or you’ll get moisture infil-tration.” Filter elements must be thoroughly dried before assem-bly. “There’s a pretty tight win-dow on everything,” Darr said.Darr objected to one operat-ing characteristic of the 568, that is included for safety: when it’s plugged into a computer, the laser-aiming beam goes off and must be turned back on manu-ally. “You can turn it back on, but it still only operates when you pull the trigger,” he said.“Feature-wise, I liked the features that it had,” Darr said. “I went through basically every feature in the menu. It was pretty straight-forward. I think anybody could pick this up and use it.”

Fluke. Keeping your world up and running.®

Fluke Corporation

PO Box 9090, Everett, WA USA 98206Fluke Europe B.V.

PO Box 1186, 5602 BD Eindhoven, The Netherlands

For more information call:

In the U.S.A. (800) 443-5853 or Fax (425) 446-5116

In Europe/M-East/Africa +31 (0) 40 2675 200 or Fax +31 (0) 40 2675 222

In Canada (800)-36-FLUKE or Fax (905) 0-6866

From other countries +1 (425) 446-5500 or Fax +1 (425) 446-5116

Web access: http://www.fluke.com

©2008 Fluke Corporation. Specifications subject to change without notice. Printed in U.S.A. 1/2008 3239601 A-EN-N Rev A

4 Fluke Corporation Fluke 568 Infrared Thermometer keeps industrial processes on a roll