60 Years of Infrared Innovation: Interview with Rickard Lindvall
Rickard Lindvall, Flir’s Vice President, reflects on six decades of infrared progress—and how the new iXX-Series puts expert-grade thermography in everyone’s hands.
What you can’t see can stop a line, trip a breaker, or risk a life. For sixty years, Flir has answered that problem the same way: make heat visible, measurable, and useful in time. From van-mounted scanners in the 1960s to a handheld that finishes the job on site, the path has been steady—less gear, more clarity, faster action.
“Engineers need reliable answers quickly,” says Rickard Lindvall. “Our north star is image quality you can trust and a workflow that moves findings into decisions without delay.”
From early scanners to everyday tools
Infrared moved from labs to industry in the mid-1960s when AGA (now part of Flir) built cameras for predictive maintenance. Utilities were early adopters, mounting cameras on vans to scan substations and find hot connections before they failed. Sensitivity and speed rose with cooled mid-wave arrays—first liquid-nitrogen systems, then Stirling-cooled FPAs.
The leap that changed everyday work came in 1997: uncooled longwave microbolometers that removed cryogens, shrank the package, and extended run time. One-piece handhelds followed; on-camera measurement became standard; MSX® (Multi-Spectral Dynamic Imaging) added crisp visual edge detail, so labels and components were unambiguous in reports. Then came Wi-Fi and camera-to-cloud—camera data moved without memory cards or cables.
Each step cut friction. The image got cleaner. The reporting got faster. The decisions moved up.
What customers told us
Across plants, utilities, and data centres, the inspection wasn’t the slow part: the reporting was. After an inspection round, pockets filled with SD cards; filenames didn’t match assets; a solid capture lacked load or ambient notes; context lived in a notebook that never reached the report. Decisions waited. Permits expired. Risk sat on the floor longer than it should.
That bottleneck shaped Flir’s latest cameras. Keep the physics and optics that define Flir; re-engineer the steps around capture—context, sync, and structure—so a technician can leave site with a finished, defensible report.
Meet iXX: thermography that feels familiar
The Flir iXX-Series behaves like a smartphone. Newer techs follow embedded best practices; experienced thermographers move faster because routine steps are handled. The iXX is serving up thermal imaging—but everyone’s invited.
“Not every shift has a master thermographer,” says Lindvall. “So we put the method into the workflow. The first image should be the right image—with the context a planner needs.
Proof in practice: Blackmon Power
Charlotte-based Blackmon Power does third-party electrical testing, arc-flash studies, and commissioning. They paired the Flir i65 (part of iXX) with the Condoit electrical data app and changed their day.
Before: 8–12 hours of reporting on large studies after the site visit.
After: a client-ready report in under five minutes.
At the Kings Mountain Data Center Campus of major customer, T5 Data Centers, a technician scanned switchgear and distribution assets. Each capture took 15–20 seconds. Suspect findings were checked with a Flir multimeter. Images and notes synced as they worked. The office reviewed and released the report the same day—no card pulls, no manual renaming, no spreadsheet rebuilds.
The benefits went beyond speed. T5 could see history across sites and plan maintenance windows with confidence. Guided fields trimmed omissions and repeat visits. A standard template meant the same study, performed by different people, produced a consistent, defensible result.
“Using the Flir i65 and Condoit app as our new workflow platform is a total gamechanger,” says Tyler Grant, Project Manager at Blackmon Power. “I've been doing this job for 10-15 years and it’s never been this easy. In particular, the platform moves reporting from the office to the field. Once the data and images are gathered on site, we can generate a report within five minutes. Then once synchronized to the cloud, I can run the report and send it to the customer immediately from my location in the office.”
What changes on your floor
Electrical: A breaker lug runs hot. The capture shows the label and component clearly (MSX) and attaches load and ambient data automatically. By the time the door closes, the planner has enough to approve parts and a safe window.
Mechanical: A bearing trends warm over two weeks. The portal graphs the rise with images and notes. You move it from “watch” to “replace” before it becomes a line-stopper.
Facilities: Heat bleeds around a roof penetration. The camera ties the visible/thermal pair to the asset record. No one asks for “a clearer photo.”
This all means less time between “we saw it” and “we fixed it” with fewer surprises between plan and actual.
Designed for the teams you have
Most sites run with mixed experience on shift with a few seasoned specialists covering more ground while newer technicians are learning. The iXX approach raises the baseline and reduces variance. The interface is familiar; the capture is guided; the report is ready when the door closes. Outcomes depend less on who held the camera and more on method embedded in the tool.
“Infrared is most useful when it answers a simple question right now—repair, monitor, or schedule,” Lindvall says. “Our aim is to get that answer into engineers’ hands faster than ever.”
What’s next—practical, not flashy
In any thermal image, a single frame contains millions of temperature data points. Combined with context, that’s a powerful signal for decision support. Flir is investing in getting that signal into the right shape at the point of work so teams can prioritise risk, trend what matters, and act earlier without adding complexity. The goal is to experience fewer surprises between plan and actual, complete more first-pass fixes, and spend more time inspecting rather than formatting.
“Customers don’t buy features; they buy solved problems,” Lindvall says. “If we remove the hours of admin after an inspection, we give engineers time back—and that’s the most valuable feature of all.”
Sixty years, same purpose
There’s pride in Flir’s history of pioneering radiometry, early handhelds, image enhancements that made documentation clearer, and connected cameras that moved evidence without cables. The through-line is practical: Detect the Undetectable. Predict the Unpredictable. Help people see what others can’t, understand what it means, and act with confidence. With iXX, more of your team can do that on day one.
Explore the 60-Year Story
