Viper Imaging has expanded its office and production facility on Valleydale Road in Shelby County by adding 10,000 square feet. The locally-owned and operated company makes thermal imaging systems.
Viper’s systems detect elevated body temperature (EBT) by using a FLIR thermal imaging camera to identify symptoms of a viral infection. The company is drawing on its background of designing and developing monitoring systems for temperature abnormalities in industrial processes, such as ladles of molten steel or electrical transformer monitoring, to design and develop a frontline means of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
The Viper EBT system has been selected as the Lenovo ThinkIoT Certified System. The system incorporates easy-to-use automated, non-contact solutions. The person to be screened steps in front of the thermal imaging camera, and the preconfigured region of interest measures the temperature of the tear ducts within 2-3 seconds. The data is analyzed by ViperVision software and the screening results are indicated on the screen with green or red pass/fail displays and customizable messaging.
“While we are excited about our success throughout 2020, we are even happier with our growing team. Their combined experience, focus and dedication have made us a much stronger company that provides solutions during and after this pandemic,” said Andy Beck, co-founder of Viper.
In March, the Viper team consisted of 11 employees. As of mid-October, the Viper team has 28 employees. During the summer, some temporary help was also brought in, bringing the number of employees up to 34. As for sales, Viper has seen a growth of more than 300% this year. While body temperature screening systems making up a significant portion of that growth, Viper is also seeing an increase for industrial process monitoring, which is the core of its business.