Patent ID: 8426813

Claim:
A system for producing a visible image of a leak of any one or more chemicals of a group of chemicals, the leak emanating from a component, including: a passive infrared camera system including: a lens assembly including a lens; a refrigerated portion including an interior; an infrared sensor device located in the interior of the refrigerated portion; a single filter configuration located in the interior of the refrigerated portion and including an optical bandpass filter fixed along an optical path between the lens assembly and the infrared sensor device; a refrigeration system that can cool the interior of the refrigerated portion; wherein at least part of the pass band for the single filter configuration is within an absorption band for each of the chemicals; and wherein the aggregate pass band for the single filter configuration is at least about 100 nm; and a processor that can process a signal representing the filtered infrared image captured by the infrared sensor device to produce a visible image of the chemical emanating from the component under variable ambient conditions of the area around the leak.