[Shop-talk] IR temperature meter

[Arvid Jedlicka]

> "Aluminum Highly Polished" has an emissivity of about .05 versus what 
> Randall claims of around .95!
>
>    NOTE: Randall, I'm not doubting on your statement - I have no basis to 
> know either way!

I will put words in Randall's mouth.

He was saying that (a) things have different emissivity values and provided 
a chart, and (b) that some meters allow you to set the emissivity value to 
"tune" the meter to the material being measured and (c) the most of the 
inexpensive meters that do not allow the emissivity value to be tuned are 
permanently set to .95.

Therefore it would be reasonable to conclude that if you are using a 
non-tunable meter and are measuring items with emissivity values that 
deviate far from .95 then the reading that you get are suspect.

Arvid