Fresnel lens thermometers are most commonly used in the food industry! They’re what you would use to measure the temperature of that Christmas turkey or (more than likely) heavily used in a restaurant setting.

Being in a restaurant, they need to offer accuracy, combined with ruggedness, as they may be dropped and can’t be susceptible to damage. The manufacturers of Fresnel lens infrared thermometers tackled this problem by ensuring that all of their Fresnel lens thermometers were encased in a hard plastic – this made them tougher and more difficult to break when dropped.

How Do Fresnel Lenses Work? 

Fresnel lenses were initially designed for use in lighthouses. The way that Fresnel lenses work is by changing the direction of light using a series of glass prisms, set inside the lens of the infrared thermometer. These prisms concentrate the beams of infrared light to allow for the thermometer to make a precision reading from as far away as twelve inches.

This allows for Fresnel lenses to be used in different types of environments and still provide accurate readings.

What Are Some Advantages of Fresnel Lens Thermometers?

 Some of the advantages of Fresnel lens infrared thermometers are as follows:

• Plastic encasing makes them less susceptible to breakage when dropped.
• Less expensive than their Mica lens counterparts, while not sacrificing a significant amount of performance or features.
• Similarly to Mica lens infrared thermometers, Fresnel lens thermometers are able to take accurate temperature readings from 6”-12” away.

Fresnel lens infrared thermometers tend to provide far more accurate readings than their no-lens counterparts and because of their ability to operate at distances of a foot away, provide far more versatility than their no-lens counterparts.

One of the key benefits of using a Fresnel lens thermometer is that you don’t sacrifice versatility when you buy one – a Fresnel lens thermometer isn’t used in the types of instances that a Mica lens thermometer would be – and therefore doesn’t have the temperature range capabilities of the Mica – but it doesn’t need it.

When you buy a Fresnel lens, you’re buying the rugged structure of the plastic that it’s built into – you can drop the thermometer without breaking it.

How Fresnel Lenses React to Change in Temperature

 Similar to Mica lenses, Fresnel lenses react to changes in temperature – taking some time to adjust to the change in ambient temperature. If you’re taking your Fresnel lens infrared thermometer from room temperature to a freezer, for example, you’re going to want to let the thermometer rest in that environment for about 20 minutes. Otherwise, the thermometer will throw up an error reading.

Letting it rest in the environment for 20 minutes, will give it time to acclimate and you’ll be able to use it properly again.

No matter what your need for an infrared thermometer is – whether you need it to measure water temperature, or body temperature, the Fresnel lens is sure to provide you with the accuracy you need, from the distance you need, every time. Be sure to stock your Fresnel lens infrared thermometers – though luckily, they’re built tough, so you won’t need to replace them if they’re dropped!