- Title: Demand for thermal devices skyrockets in coronavirus times
- Date: 1st July 2020
- Summary: PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (RECENT - JUNE 26, 2020) (REUTERS VIA ZOOM) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FLIR SYSTEMS, GLOBAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, DIRECTOR, CHRIS BAINTER, SAYING: "We're seeing exponential demand, really, from every industry and globally. In Q1, we had bookings of over $100 million, and they were mainly tied to our handheld, battery-powered solutions because of their ability to be rapidly deployed. Now, what we're seeing with customers, is gravitating towards our more automated, fixed mount solutions that can be more readily integrated into existing access, control, and security protocols."
- Embargoed: 15th July 2020 13:46
- Keywords: COVID-19 FLIR Systems Intel Opgal Optronic Industries ThermalPass Thermoteknix Systems Tyson Foods coronavirus going back to normal pandemic reopening screening thermal cameras
- Location: PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, + SPRINGDALE, ARKANSAS, UNITED STATES, TORONTO, CANADA, ROISSY-EN-FRANCE, + ORLY, FRANCE, CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM, UNKNOWN LOCATIONS
- City: PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, + SPRINGDALE, ARKANSAS, UNITED STATES, TORONTO, CANADA, ROISSY-EN-FRANCE, + ORLY, FRANCE, CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM, UNKNOWN LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA003CKZC953
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The makers of specialized devices to quickly scan for fever are grappling with soaring demand, executives told Reuters.
"We're seeing exponential demand, really, from every industry, and globally," said Chris Bainter, a director of global business development at FLIR Systems, a company that makes thermal cameras.
FLIR received $100 million worth of orders in the first quarter of 2020, Bainter said, mainly for handheld, battery-powered devices.
Now customers are more interested in automated, fixed mount cameras that can quickly become part of the usual screening process at airports, concert halls, or shopping malls.
The global thermal imaging market is estimated to grow from $3.4 billion in 2020 to $4.6 billion by 2025, according to a research from Markets and Markets.
Coronavirus and COVID-19 have supplied a major push for that trend.
Systems that include the cameras, displays and other needed hardware cost between $5,000 to $10,000.
Major employers, such as Tyson Foods and Intel, have experimented with thermal devices to ensure workers do not enter factories with potential illness, a critical part of maintaining production during the pandemic that could become more widespread as more economies reopen.
A fever detection system, ThermalPass, was conceived at the beginning of the coronavius pandemic to help meet that heightened demand, said Michael Lende, the president and CEO of Canada-based Internet of Things, a company that created a joint venture with its own subsidiary, AI Labs, to produce ThermalPass.
It has received more than a hundred of unsolicited inquiries in the first three weeks of June, before it started marketing the new product, Lende said.
Other thermal device producers, including UK-based Thermoteknix Systems and Israel's Opgal Optronic Industries, also said the surge in interest due to coronavirus has caused a sales spike, with Thermoteknix tripling quarterly sales and Opgal selling as many units in a few weeks as they had in more than five years.
(Production: Aleksandra Michalska) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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