Research on low-cost and portable infrared imaging technology is the development trend of live detection in recent years. In order to reduce the influence of infrared detection environment, infrared sensors and other factors, and solve the problems of infrared image noise, blur and low contrast in infrared detection , an infrared image NSCT enhancement algorithm based on gray wolf maximum entropy threshold segmentation and improved fuzzy enhancement is designed in this paper. The original infrared image is transformed into high frequency component and low frequency component by NSCT domain. Then, the high-frequency component with noise is de-noised by VT and enhanced by improved fuzzy enhancement, and the low-frequency components with power equipment are segmented by gray wolf adaptive threshold, after that, they are enhanced respectively. Finally, the enhanced high-frequency components and low-frequency components are inverted NSCT to form the final enhanced image. The superiority of the algorithm in the substation power equipment infrared detection is verified through the comparison application. Compared with other algorithms, the edge strength, information entropy, contrast, standard deviation and peak signal-to-noise ratio of the algorithm increases by 3. 94% ,2. 16%, 9, 86%, 7.45% and 21. 86% at least. The infrared image processed by the algorithm conforms to the human visual fect, which is easier for the human eye to identify the fault, and is conducive to the detection and fault location of power equipment thermal fault.