i’m designing a protective aluminum housing for the phone, my background is CAD/CAM and CNC machining so i can do all the things needed to manufacturing the housing, but i have little experience with lens and thermal imaging.
The problem is, this camera will inevitably take a paintball to the lens(paintball’s at 300fps produce around 18ftlbs or 24joules of energy) and since I can’t just stick a piece of plexiglass or acrylic in front of it, i have a potential $350 broke piece of equipment.
Now I’ve read up on the popular materials for the specific wavelength 8-14um which is mostly germanium and I’ve been contacting a few suppliers for quotes on some flat, disk windows but none of them are below a price feasible for something that will inevitably need replaces with prolong use.
With long hours of research I was about to stop looking until i ran across a random youtube video;
Now i can design the housing to mechanically absorb most of the impact and hopefully the plastic can hold up to the remaining energy and keep the lens clean. What i don’t know is the specific plastic used(i read somewhere polystyrene?) Since the actual lens of the IR camera will only be around .2", i think a mildly thick plastic would work but I was hoping some of you that have a lot more experience and knowledge than i, could give some advice or possibly know any other materials feasible for this application.
TL;DR
Do you know of any materials that thermal imaging can see through?
Cameron, you have to get the he-man plastic garbage bags…faster than a speeding bullet and all that, you know?
jdeoliveira2
(John Paul de Oliveira, GB-2 #86934 / AB #44580)
7
Who Knew? Sapphire glass.
From Jeff’s link above:
Sapphire Viewport
Sapphire viewports are selected for their superior optical transmission properties in the IR spectrum. Windows are silver-brazed to Kovar® sleeves. They are mounted in stainless steel tube-weld adapters and CF type flanges for use below 1x10-11, or ISO type Kwik-Flange® or Large Flange® for intermediate vacuum ranges.
Sapphire window surfaces which are extremely hard and scratch resistant offer a minimum of distortion and provide maximum light transmission suitable for most applications. UV grade viewports have a 90° crystal orientation normal to the optical axis.
Germanium is a versatile infrared material commonly used in imaging systems and instruments in the 2 to 12 microns spectral region. It is used as a substrate for lenses, windows, and output couplers for low-power CW as well as pulsed TEA, CO2 lasers.
Fluke are using silicon in their new Ti200,300 and 400 series.
Flir use Germanium in their T420/440 series. I do not know if they use Germanium throughout their product line.
