I don’t post much here but I have to say this can be one of the most unfriendly message boards I’ve ever seen. Even if someone posts a question that some think is stupid or amateur, most of the time the answer is go get trained or some other snide remark.
I don’t know who your specifically talking about but try being more direct. There are pages and pages of good information discussing highly technical applications to help broaden the perspective of people getting into this field.
I really get the impression that SOME (Not all) IR folks and home inspectors are dare I say insecure snobs. It’s like the profession stands head and shoulders above any other technical profession.
It has nothing to do with insecure snobbery. If you paid real close attention you will find that the biggest conflict is about some particular individual that made up a “certified course” by attending the oldest and least technical thermal imaging course from ITC/Flir. Then turning around and charging $600 to teach what he learned and in the process has done nothing to advance his training or his own certification beyond that with every other beginner here understands.
If you haven’t taken a course that’s deemed “approved” by the massess you’re some how less of a professional or not really legitimate… not one of the clan.
If you go back and read (like you should have in the first place) you will see that most thermographers here with a bunch of numbers that you don’t seem to like you will see that almost all of them will support three or more trainers in the field that they feel they should recommend based upon the fact that the trainer has extensive expertise in the field. Such as a PhD in nuclear physics, electrical engineering etc.
IR although technical and complex in it’s deeper layers isn’t rocket science. In fact it’s not that hard at all to comprehend and use effectively with a little training and experience even if it’s done all on your own. Does that make you less technical or knowledgeable than someone who has a printed PDF certificate on their wall?
While that’s a bunch of malarkey because that’s what the arguments are all about. This is a “science”. The fact that somebody doesn’t want to teach the science saying that it’s unnecessary is the problem and the reason for conflict here. This is not Polaroid camera technology by clicking a picture and printing it out. You need to understand what’s in the scan and before you can do that you must be able to generate the scan which could have multiple targets and exceptions in a single scan. If you use your camera on automatic and let her fly you don’t necessarily find what you’re looking for. The trainers here feel that there is no used to take any action to correct parent temperatures and readings generated from the camera during building inspections. They think pretty colors are all you need to achieve to assess the situation. It’s not about finding pretty colors, it’s finding what, where and why.
The IR profession seems less about helping and more about marketing products and training. If you don’t buy into the marketing and training you are somehow branded not worthy or illegitimate.
As I explained elsewhere, certification (as used freely around here) is not certification of the thermographer it is certification of the course. What you describe is a made-up course is exactly what was done in this infrared certified thing. However the ASTM book was not involved, just Photoshop.
Certification is certianly important but other than at least basic knowledge, what does it really mean? It’s not the Bar exame, it’s not geting an accredited degree in Computer Science, in fact, the rather expensive training is nothing more than a course and a made up certificate than can be done by almost anyone who wants to invest the time, get an ASTM book, build a course and work up a certificate and logo in photoshop.
Again, back to certification: in the real world thermographers work for a company and that company is what does the certification and maintain certification for that particular individual. They do this by sending an individual to a “certified training facility” or by certifying the individual on-site through their own program. In most cases is going to be cheaper to send someone out then to develop and train on your own. Seeing this is not the practice in self-employed home inspectors, who is going to train you in the house? Yourself?
Training is great of course but in some cases very over rated. You CAN learn on your own. My brother (Test Engineer) did IR among other things for VW for many years. Back in the day they gave him an ungodly expensive FLIR rig and the software and said here, figure out a test program for us. He became just as experienced and IR savvy as almost anyone I’ve seen and only got his level one years later.
So if there is no importance in level training, why did he bother? Please explain to us how many times he screwed up in the process of becoming proficient at what he did. Around here we get sued when we screw up. The levels of training basically are progressions in the field for use when you have more than one thermographer so you can set down the responsibilities in your company for each level of thermographer. Level III training (though has discussions on more advanced thermography techniques) is primarily set up to do exactly what your brother was required to do, build a company thermography plan, employ its standards, and ensure compliance. Your perspective of what’s going on around here should include the fact that this level III responsibility is being performed by an individual who is not even attained level I status (and his building science status has expired due to the lack of continuing education).
I just wish people where were in general more friendly and helpful and not such a clique.
I would hope that someone here that has been contacted or has contacted thermographers from here to discuss particular situations they need help with and would respond about just how un-friendly we all can be around here! As a matter of fact, I would challenge you to find one single post from the infrared certified team that has helped anyone here besides promoting a $600 unqualified (ASTM) course.
Flame away.