Surface Thermometers

Surface Thermometers

Surface thermometers provide non-invasive temperature measurement by contacting only the external surface of a pipe, reactor, or vessel, inferring the medium temperature without process penetration. Endress+Hauser characterizes non-invasive thermometers as broadly usable across industries and especially well-suited for heavy-duty processes with demanding conditions. This approach is particularly valuable for retrofits, temporary measurements, and energy/safety monitoring points that benefit from flexible placement across multiple pipes or locations.

The category spans both advanced and fundamental devices, including Endress+Hauser’s iTHERM SurfaceLine instruments such as a non-invasive RTD/TC thermometer intended for demanding applications and a fundamental RTD model targeted at basic monitoring. Non-invasive measurement can be deployed where conventional thermowells would introduce unacceptable leak risk, engineering effort, or downtime, while still delivering actionable thermal visibility for operations and maintenance programs.

Benefits are strongly tied to risk reduction and installation simplicity. Endress+Hauser explicitly highlights that surface thermometers avoid direct contact with the medium, eliminate leakage risk, and remove the need for extensive thermowell engineering such as wake frequency calculations. Installation can be performed without shutting down the process, with no impact on flow steadiness, and without thermowell wear mechanisms in corrosive or abrasive services - enabling faster deployment and improved maintainability.

Surface temperature assemblies are positioned for demanding conditions including high flow velocities and high pressures, highly viscous or corrosive media, abrasion, pigging, and small pipe diameters. These constraints are common in heavy-duty industries such as chemical/petrochemical, power and energy, and mining/minerals/metals, where access limitations and harsh service often discourage intrusive measurement points. Endress+Hauser also references customized “skin point” assemblies used to measure pipe skin temperature to check for internal build-up in fired heaters, furnaces, and heat exchangers.

Implementation quality depends on thermal contact integrity and environmental control: mounting technique, insulation strategy, and ambient exposure must be managed so the measured surface temperature tracks the true process condition as closely as practical. Signal integration can follow analog or digital standards depending on device selection and site practice, enabling deployment as either a permanent monitoring point or a temporary diagnostic measurement. When applied with appropriate installation discipline, surface thermometers provide a high-leverage option for adding temperature visibility without process disruption.

At Eastern Controls, We are proud to be the exclusive authorized sales and service representative for Endress+Hauser.