Testing of varistors using thermography was carried out in order to assess their protective properties against possible overvoltage phenomena in the form of high-level voltage surges. An advantage of the thermography technique is non-contact temperature measurement. It was proposed to assess the properties of varistors working in electronic devices as protective elements, on the basis of estimating temperature increments on varistor surfaces, registered by an infrared camera during surge resistance tests with standard voltage levels. To determine acceptable temperature increments on a tested varistor, preliminary testing was performed of P22Z1 (Littelfuse) and S07K14 (EPCOS) type varistors, working first at a constant load and presently during surge tests,. The thermographic test results were compared with measured varistor capacity values before and after tests. It was found that recording with thermography temperature increments greater than 6°C for both P22Z1 and S07K14 varistor types detects total or partial loss of varistor protective properties. The test results were confirmed by assessment of protective properties of varistors working in output circuits of low nominal voltage devices.
The paper presents a proposal of using additional statistical parameters such as: standard deviation, variance, maximum and minimum increases of the observed value that were determined during measurements of temperature fields created on the surface of the tested electrochemical capacitor. The measurements were carried out using thermographic methods in order to support assessment of the condition of electrochemical capacitor under classic durability tests based on methods of determination of capacity and equivalent series resistance. The possibility of using some statistical parameters in assessment of the electrochemical capacitor quality was illustrated. The applied measurement methodology and the results of research associated with the classic methods of supercapacitors’ assessment are presented. The obtained results indicate that the variability of some statistical parameters of temperature fields can be directly related to changing the values of standard parameters describing electrochemical capacitor, which are capacitance and equivalent series resistance.