Abstract: The present disclosure discloses an infrared thermal imaging defect detection method and apparatus for a substation insulator. An infrared module is bidirectionally connected to a core computing module, and an infrared module is unidirectionally connected to a high-rate battery. The core computing module is unidirectionally connected to a touch screen. The infrared module is configured to obtain infrared radiation information through a lens, and calculate and generate a temperature distribution video. The method includes infrared video acquisition, thermal region segmentation, device type determination, key temperature information extraction, defect diagnoses, result display and result saving.