NITE (National Institute of Technology and Evaluation), which promotes the smartification of electrical safety, has included SSC's Thermal Watcher as a component technology in the Smart Safety Technology Catalog. (Element 2024 00011-01 Heating Monitoring System using Thermopile Array Sensors) NITE serves as the secretariat for the Smart Safety Promotion Committee and has published the "Smart Safety Technology Catalog," which compiles new smart safety technologies for electrical equipment. *The Smart Safety Promotion Committee is an initiative established by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in the fiscal year 2020 to promote the accurate introduction of smart safety technologies through public-private collaboration by setting up the Smart Safety Public-Private Council. In the field of electrical safety, there is a need for a system to verify the validity of smart safety technologies within the Electric Safety Subcommittee of the Smart Safety Public-Private Council, leading to the establishment of the Smart Safety Promotion Committee, for which NITE serves as the secretariat.

SSC Corporation, which manufactures and sells non-contact temperature sensors, has begun the development of the "Temperature Abnormality Monitoring Unit Thermal Watcher (tentative name)." **Background of Development** This product was initiated in response to customer needs for a low-cost unit that can detect abnormal heat generation due to terminal loosening within control panels, thereby preventing fires and accidents. Additionally, this product aims to be usable in various applications, not limited to control panels, as it allows for easy implementation of temperature monitoring over a wide area. **Features of the Product** The product consists of a sensor and a controller. The sensor uses a thermopile array sensor, which outputs temperature information divided into a 32×32 grid within a field of view (90 degrees vertically and horizontally) and sends it to the controller. The controller can connect multiple sensors to a single unit, determining whether the maximum temperature of each sensor exceeds a set threshold and issuing an alarm in case of abnormalities. Furthermore, the temperature information from each sensor is output via Modbus RTU communication, considering connections with higher-level devices such as PLCs and PCs. *Note: The product overview is based on content in development and may be subject to change.*