Gas Leak Detection

Many industrially important gases are invisible to the naked eye but absorb strongly in the mid-wave infrared. Optical gas imaging (OGI) turns this absorption into a visible plume against the background — and the technique lives or dies by thermal sensitivity. Cooled MWIR cores with NETD down to 16 mK resolve the minute temperature contrast between a leaking gas cloud and its surroundings that uncooled imagers cannot reach.

An OGI camera pairs a high-sensitivity cooled core with spectral filtering matched to the target gas’s absorption band. System integrators configure the optical chain for their target gases — VOC classes in petrochemical service, SF₆ in switchgear inspection, and others — while the imaging core determines the fundamental sensitivity, resolution, and frame rate of the finished camera. This is the layer we supply: cooled MWIR cores in 640, 1024, and 1280 formats for handheld, fixed, and robotic OGI systems.

For leak detection and repair (LDAR) programs, OGI turns inspection from a point-by-point sniffer exercise into wide-area visual scanning: one operator images hundreds of components per hour, and leaks appear in real time on the video feed. Fixed OGI installations extend the same capability to 24/7 fence-line and tank-farm monitoring, automatically flagging plume events for response teams.

Typical Deployments

• Handheld LDAR cameras: lightweight cooled cores for technician-carried component surveys
• Fixed fence-line monitoring: continuous automated plume detection around process units and storage
• Pipeline & compressor stations: pan-tilt OGI covering valves, seals, and connectors
• Robotic & crawler inspection: compact cores for confined or hazardous-area platforms

Module Selection Guide