Fluke 568, 561 Service Guide
Reviewer gives Fluke 568
Infrared two thumbs up for
maintenance and
system monitoring
Testing Functions
Case Study
Application Note
Tool: Fluke 568 Infrared/Contact
Thermometer
Tester: Todd Woelk, Electrical
and Instrumentation Supervisor,
Equa-Chlor
Tests: Electrical and mechanical
component operational temperature
checks and temperature comparison
over time
This is a 700 hp motor used to run the Equa-Chlor hydrogen compressor. Woelk has had
typical readings around 75 °F to 80 °F. He is measuring the external surface of the motor,
compressor, and gearbox.
Infrared, non-contact thermometers are mainstays for checking equipment temperatures to
spot emerging problems before
they lead to shutdowns. When a
new Fluke infrared thermometer
appears that’s more capable,
rugged, and easier to use, that’s
good news to FlukePlus members. Hundreds of members
entered a contest to be first to
put the new Fluke 568 Thermometer through its paces, as
official beta-testers. This story
describes how one of the winning testers used the tool.
Test points
Fluke engineers designed the
Fluke 568 to set a new standard among hand-held infrared
thermometers as a highly accurate, rugged tool with advanced
features that people can easily
understand how to use.
By using a dot-matrix display
for the thermometer’s screen,
designers were able to match the
tool’s three buttons to intuitive
on-screen menus. They hoped
that beta testers would be able
to use the menus without help
and adapt the tool’s settings for
specific measurement scenarios.
For example, infrared readings
are essentially a measurement
of surface temperature, and their
accuracy depends on the type
of surface being measured, a
phenomenon called emissivity.
Users of earlier infrared thermometers had complained that
they didn’t know the different
emissivity values for different
surface materials, such as aluminum or copper. Even if they did
know, users couldn’t figure out
how to change the values in the
thermometer. So, the new Fluke
568 contains an on-board table
From the Fluke Digital Library @ www.fluke.com/library
This is the 13.8 KV feeder connections to the 30 MW dc rectifier. These temperatures
vary greatly, depending on ambient air and plant load.
of common values and the new
menus should make them easy
to find—but this would be the
true test. (Users that know the
emissitivity of the materials they
want to measure can still enter
an exact value numerically.)
In addition to adjustable emissivity, to get an accurate reading,
an infrared thermometer needs
a high distance-to-spot ratio. An
infrared thermometer doesn’t
measure just the temperature
at the laser pointer; it actually
measures within a circle around
that point. The weaker the distance to spot, the larger that
circle is and the larger the area
that will be averaged into the
reading that you see. At a 50:1
The Fluke 568 is also compatible with standard type-K
thermocouples (and comes with
a bead probe), for direct contact
measurement, and measures a
wide infrared temperature range
(-40 °C to 800 °C /-40 °F to
1472 °F).
Lastly, the 568 is drop tested
to a standard of 1.5 meters, has
two kinds of built-in alarms, and
can data log up to 99 data points
and download via USB to a computer for analysis and reporting. It
even has a built-in tripod mount
for hands-free, stationary measurement applications, allowing
real-time monitoring via a PC and
the included FlukeView
®
Forms
graphing software.
distance-to-spot ratio, the Fluke
568 measures only a 1 inch circle
from 50 inches away—an impressive achievement for an infrared
thermometer.
Meet the tester
Experience taught FlukePlus
member Todd Woelk how important heat readings can be in
maintaining a production facility,
so he jumped on the opportunity
to test the Fluke 568. Thermal
testing has made a big difference at the Equa-Chlor, LLC
chlor-alkali production facility in
Longview, Washington, where
Woelk serves as Electrical and
Instrumentation Supervisor. A
better infrared themometer? He
wanted to try it.
The $85 million plant came on
line in February, 2006, the first
of its type built in the U.S. in 12
years. It’s located on long-term
leased property within the fence
line of Weyerhaeuser’s Longview
Fiber Plant. The operation produces 220 tons a day of chlorine,
caustic soda, sodium hypochlorite, and hydrogen. These are
the chemical building blocks for
hundreds of industries, used to
produce plastics, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), vinyl, bleaches and
paper. Weyerhaeuser uses many
of them in the paper-making
process.
Woelk calls it “a small to
medium-sized facility,” but, at
full-tilt, the operation uses 27
megawatts of power—that’s
enough to power 31,000 homes
for a year. Much of that energy
is transformed down to 11,500
volts, then rectified to 320 V dc.
Then, 100,000 amps of 320 volt
current is sent through a huge
aluminum bus to 66 processing
cells filled with brine and caustic soda. When the production
line is running, it produces a
magnetic field powerful enough
to stop a wristwatch. Current
moving through the cells causes
an electrochemical reaction that
produces caustic soda, hydrogen
and chlorine.
This is a motor starter
bucket for a 60 hp motor.
Woelk is checking fuses and
terminations. He usually
sees about 120 °F to 130 °F
on components in the MCCs.
2 Fluke Corporation Reviewer gives Fluke 568 Infrared two thumbs up for maintenance and system monitoring
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