I. Warranty

The manufacturer shall warrant the thermal imager free of defects in material and workmanship, under normal use and service, for a period of one year effective upon delivery. In addition, the imager's outer shell or housing shall carry a limited lifetime warranty.

The manufacturer must be located in the U.S.A. and provide a full-service repair center in the U.S.A. to ensure timely and efficient processing of any service related issues concerning the imager. Warranty repairs must carry a guaranteed 48-hour turnaround (2 full business days) from the time of receipt at the service center to the time that the manufacturer ships the imager. Non-warranty repairs must carry a guaranteed 48-hour (2 full business days) turnaround from the time the manufacturer receives purchase order authorization to complete the repairs to the time the manufacturer ships the imager. Upon request, the manufacturer must provide the names and contact information for three (3) fire departments that can serve as references, verifying that the manufacturer complies with this requirement.

The manufacturer must ensure quality, design and manufacturing methods through third party certification to ISO 9001, or its equivalent. To ensure that the product is of the highest quality, documentation must be presented upon request illustrating a battery of tests that have been conducted to verify water resistance, heat resistance and shock/impact resistance.

The imager shall be a hand-held design, having a 5-inch LCD display screen and a carrying strap on the top and side of the imager. A wrist strap and a shoulder strap shall accompany the imager at no extra charge. Total weight of the imager shall not exceed 6 lbs. with the standard battery installed. The imager shall ship in a padded, hard-sided case. The imager shall ship standard with two rechargeable batteries, a battery charger with AC and DC adapters and an interactive multimedia orientation/training CD-ROM. The imager must be available with the following options: digital image capture; digital zoom of 2X or greater; surface temperature measurement (via a pyrometer).

Standard equipment on the imager shall also include a port that provides video out capability. This port must be protected by a self-closing or self-sealing cap to protect the connection. Video out ports that require the user to replace a cap will not be considered equal.

The imager shall remain operational after being submerged under 3 feet of water for 30 seconds. The thermal imager shall withstand a 3-foot drop in any orientation and sustain no operational damage. The manufacturer must perform these tests in front of designated department representatives at a mutually determined time and location, if requested by the department. Failure to perform these tests in front of designated department representatives as requested shall constitute non-compliance with this portion of the specification

The imaging technology shall be a Raytheon ferroelectric BST uncooled ceramic focal plane array (FPA), with a resolution of 320x240 pixels. The heat sensitivity of the detector shall be a minimum of .05°C for temperature definition. The proposed imager shall exhibit an ability to evade whiteout or blooming conditions when subjected to direct flame or sun. Clarity of the image must not deteriorate by either type of exposure during normal operations. If the imager is purchased with the digital image capture option, the imager shall store at least 24 images in a standard computer format; preference will be given to images stored as bitmap files (BMP files). The images must be downloadable via hardwire cable into a standard Windows-based personal computer. The capture, retrieval, storage and selection of captured images must not require the use of a remote control device. Captured images must be saved onto the computer with the date and time they were taken.

The imager shall be ergonomically designed and the outer shell or housing must be manufactured from heat resistant Ultem thermoplastic. Due to the likelihood of rigorous use, the Ultem must be molded with color pigment throughout to mask small surface scratches. Outer shells or housings that are painted or otherwise lack consistent color through their entire thickness are not acceptable. The interior surfaces of the outer shell or housing shall be coated with a conductive electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding material.

The imager should be available in no less than seven scratch resistant colors to allow for color-coding as needed by the department. Colors shall include, at a minimum: Red, Yellow, Black, White, Orange, Blue, and Lime-Yellow.

The imager shall have a 5" diagonal fluorescent backlit Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen. It shall have a minimum pixel range of 89,856 and a dot format of 234 x 384 dots for high quality resolution. The screen must be visible in thick smoke to both the operator and nearby firefighters from a variety of distances from the face, including arms length. In addition, the display screen must be protected by a clear polycarbonate cover. This cover must be field replaceable and watertight.
To permit flexibility in tracking the department’s imagers, the imager must be available with an optional customized start up screen or customized start up graphics.

The imager shall possess an f/1.0 lens (or faster) fabricated of germanium and have no less than a 40° x 50° field of view. The imager shall include as standard equipment a manual iris or aperture control (thermal throttle) to allow the user to clarify scene definition.

The imager shall have an on/off switch that is illuminated while the imager is activated. To reduce the potential for user problems, there shall be no other lights or indicators other than those displayed on the LCD.

To ensure maximum ease-of-use, the imager shall have one push button switch to operate the imager; this button shall also place the imager in a stand-by or sleep mode. The optional transmitter operation and channel selection must be activated by only one push button switch. The optional digital image capture and digital zoom modes shall each be operated by their own push button switches.

The strap system must be field replaceable and shall be constructed with the following: The side and top strap shall be made primarily of Kevlar and leather. Both straps must be adjustable and must include at least one metal D-ring.

A minimum of two (2) rechargeable batteries shall accompany each imager. Each battery shall be a 10-volt nickel metal hydride (NiMH) cell, providing a minimum of 1 hour of continuous use with all standard functions and features. Each battery must be capable of a minimum of 1,000 charges. The battery shall have an Ultem outer shell. The battery shall be secured inside the imager, in or near the primary body of the imager. Imagers which expose the battery to the ambient environment or which place the battery in the handle shall not be considered equal. The battery door shall close and latch only when the battery is properly loaded into the housing and the battery must be easily inserted and removed by a person wearing standard firefighting gloves. A lithium ion battery is an unacceptable substitute for NiMH due to lithium's higher risk of explosion when exposed to high heat.

The imager must be fully operational no more than 30 seconds after activating the power switch.

The manufacturer shall offer an optional wireless remote transmitter compliant with FCC part 90 while operating at a range of 2.4 GHz. The wireless transmitter must come as a two (2) or four (4) channel unit at the department's option. The transmitter and a dipole antenna shall be housed completely inside the imager’s body, protecting the transmitter and antenna from possible damage. Each wireless unit must have a receiver and antenna able to receive a signal from at least 300 feet through common Type V construction. The manufacturer must have available with the wireless transmitter a 9" AC/DC TV/VCR with internally mounted receiver to simplify the operation of remote video transmitter.

The manufacturer must offer a truck mounted charging system to mount the imager and internal charging system in a vehicle or fire apparatus. The charging system shall come standard with all necessary mounting hardware, a direct charge system, and power cords that enable the use of a DC power supply. The system must charge the battery in the imager at the same time it charges a spare battery. The battery inside the imager may be connected by a cable only if the cable attaches to the imager with a threaded retaining system..

A product familiarization class will be available through the manufacturer's authorized distributor. Each imager must ship with an interactive multimedia orientation CD-ROM covering the technology, product uses, and applications. The CD-ROM must have interactive testing of each main section covered in the program. To ensure the highest quality training materials, the manufacturer must have at least two full-time employees dedicated to developing and delivering thermal imaging training. To qualify, the employee must have at least ten years of active firefighting experience and must be certified as a thermal imaging instructor by an internationally recognized organization that specializes in thermal imaging for public safety organizations. The employee must also spend at least 75% of his/her time on thermal imaging training programs.

The manufacturer shall deliver the thermal imager in 30 days or less after receiving the purchase order.