Can anyone suggest any material to read and study before a person moves on to
level 2. Company gave me training for Level 1, but then quit training for any thing else. Thinking about going on myself(with out company) Any suggestion would be a big help

I have several suggestions, but only with a proviso! Realize that not all that is published is accurate or true.

That said, I would point you first to the Proceedings of Thermosense (www.spie.org), Inframation (www.flir.com) and our conference, Thermal Solutions, proceedings available via www.snellinfrared.com. In each case these written records of the conferences provide immense quantities of valuable information (maybe with some chaff tossed in!).

I'd also point you to Austin Richard's fine book called Alien Visions, available from amazon.com.

ASNT publishes several good books, including Herb Kaplan's Level III Study Guide (a new edition is due out soon) and Nondestructive Testing Handbook, Third Edition: Volume 3, Infrared and Thermal Testing.

Trade magazines also often run good articles that are well worth reading but you must put your "filters" on to sort out the suspect material. I'd point you to Uptime and Plant Reliability, among others.

You really should get copies of standards from ASTM for thermograph. There are about a half dozen but the key ones at this time are for building insulation (C-1060), electrical/mechanical inspections (E-1934) and roof moisture (C-1153). There are also several relevant ISO standards. NFPA 70B and 70E are also both relevant to thermographers.

There are more, but that's it for tonight! And this should keep you busy for awhile anyway.

Pete:
Check out this website:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Click on the "Heat and Thermodynamics" button. It is an interactive website, with equations you can put various inputs into on various aspects of Physics. It also has great examples, and you can drill into any concept until you are sick of it!

Enjoy!