The Beginning
It all began in 1928, when Mr. Bollerman opened Pyrometer Instrument Company at 101-106 Lafayette Street, New York, NY.
The first products were contact and immersion thermocouple pyrometers for molten iron and steel foundries. Five years later, the company introduced a traditional non-contact optical pyrometer that incorporated a photoscreenic wedge. A photoscreenic wedge acts as a neutral density filter, which enables the measuring instrument to provide a clear, enlarged view of the target.
Steady market growth continued throughout the years of WWII, and shortly after the war, Mr. Bollerman moved the company headquarters to Bergenfield, NJ. At that time his son Paul, joined the company.
Technical Developments
In 1956, Pyrometer introduced the Micro Optical non-contact disappearing filament pyrometer.
With this device, the target did not have to fill the entire field of view of the instrument. Thus, operators were able to view targets as small as 0.0005 inches, such as wires.
Two years later, the Photo I was released as the world’s first Automatic Optical Pyrometer thus making temperature measurement even easier. The Photo I measures temperature without manual operation by utilizing fully automatic non-contact optical photoscreenic wedge technology. The Photo II, a lower cost alternative to the Photo I, arrived in 1960.
Nine years after that, Pyrometer relocated factory and offices to Northvale, NJ. Continuing the pursuit of easier and even more accurate hot temperature measurement, the next products to come from the company were the Digital 500, a combination contact and immersion pyrometer with a digital readout, and the IR 60, the company’s first non-contact infrared temperature measurement instruments.
Metallurgical Quality Control
Technical developments, though, were not the only growth experienced by the company. Several new avenues of growth came during the 1980s
First, Dr. E. K. Matthews purchased the company from Paul Bollerman. During the following years, Pyrometer developed alliances and agreements with several companies. In 1982, the company represented Phillips Gmbh / Process Machinery Automation controls in North America. This arrangement added a complete factory automation process controllers product line to Pyrometer. In 1985, the company purchased four product lines from Barnes Engineering. One product was the predecessor to modern thermal vision cameras, the ThermaTrace line of thermal line scanners. Another was the PRT-5, a large area radiation thermometer. The other two products bought in this agreement were the Optitherm, an on-line IR temperature measurement system, and the InstaTherm, a portable IR thermometer used for energy conservation.
Emissivity Patent Rights
In 1987, Pyrometer purchased exclusive patent rights from Exxon Corporation to develop emissivity measurement systems.
Emissivity is crucial to accurate temperature measurement in infrared thermometers and temperature sensors. Like radiance, it’s another material feature that, when known, allows operators to ensure a high quality yield. Emissivity though, affects optical and infrared temperature instruments, reducing measurement accuracy. Prior to 1987, operators would estimate emissivity based on experience or use of ratio pyrometers limited for gray body targets. A problem with these solutions was that emissivity tends to change quickly, making it difficult to obtain accurate temperature measurements.
With the Exxon rights, Pyrometer developers went to work on creating an automatic emissivity correcting IR thermometer that would solve these problems. The result was the Pyrolaser® Portable automatic IR thermometer. This device so improved the accuracy of temperature measurement that it received the 1988 Photonics Circle of Excellence Award.
New Products
During 1990, Pyrometer introduced the MicroTherm non-contact disappearing filament pyrometer to view miniature targets. The next products to come from the company were automatic emissivity correcting IR thermometers with fiber optic sensors.
The Pyrofiber® Industrial thermometer handles industrial applications while the Pyrofiber Lab meets the special needs of laboratory applications. These instruments use lasers and reflectometers to determine emissivity. They read the radiance emitted from a hot target. Then they fire their pulse lasers at the target, collecting the reflected energy in the main sensor heads. These instruments can detect values to an accuracy of ±3°C with a data acquisition rate of 1 ms.
At the turn of the new century, The company relocated to new offices and facilities in Northvale, NJ. and Pyrometer introduced the Pseries line of precision blackbody calibration sources.
In late 2002, Pyrometer introduced the Optitherm III which allows emissivity and temperature measurement on highly reflective or polished materials. This technology brings a higher degree of temperature measurement accuracy to such applications as scientific, semiconductor in-situ growth and specialty steels.
And the Growth Continues
Today, the Pyrometer Instrument Company is the prominent leader in the development of precision temperature measurement instruments for science and industry and is the only domestic manufacturer of traditional optical photoscreenic wedge and disappearing filament pyrometers.
Whether at a refractory furnace, industrial oven or in space research, measuring temperature without contacting the surface is vital to quality and yield, especially when those temperatures reach over 250°C. Pyrometer Instrument Company has spent 85 years developing and manufacturing instruments that make high-temperature measurement easier and more accurate.
The Pyrometer Instrument Company, Inc is a New Jersey based corporation with sales office and factory facilities located in Windsor, NJ.
