Application Note

2 Fluke Corporation Reviewer gives Fluke 568 Infrared two thumbs up for maintenance and system monitoring
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 emis-
sivity, 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 dis-
tance 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
distance-to-spot ratio, the Fluke
568 measures only a 1 inch circle
from 50 inches away—an impres-
sive achievement for an infrared
thermometer.
The Fluke 568 is also com-
patible 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 com-
puter for analysis and reporting. It
even has a built-in tripod mount
for hands-free, stationary mea-
surement applications, allowing
real-time monitoring via a PC and
the included FlukeView
®
Forms
graphing software.
Meet the tester
Experience taught FlukePlus
member Todd Woelk how impor-
tant 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 differ-
ence 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 pro-
duces 220 tons a day of chlorine,
caustic soda, sodium hypochlo-
rite, and hydrogen. These are
the chemical building blocks for
hundreds of industries, used to
produce plastics, polyvinyl chlo-
ride (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 caus-
tic 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 the 13.8 KV feeder connections to the 30 MW dc rectifier. These temperatures
vary greatly, depending on ambient air and plant load.
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.