Abstract <p>To ensure the reliability of structural elements made of polymer composite materials operating under vibration conditions, it is necessary to have data on their resistance to destruction due to high-cycle fatigue. The traditional approach to determining the fatigue strength characteristics of materials involves long-term expensive tests. The infrared thermography method for express estimation of the fatigue limit has actively been developed in recent years. The method is based on the use of self-heating of the material under cyclic loads exceeding the fatigue limit. This study is aimed at developing, within the framework of the infrared thermography method, a technique for experimental rapid estimate of the fatigue limit of polymer composite materials using the example of laminated carbon fiber plastics, substantiation of the selection of controlled parameters of the thermal state of samples and processing of the results. Standard samples of carbon fiber were subjected to block cyclic loading in the tension–tension cycle using an electroresonance testing machine. During loading, the surface temperature of the samples was recorded using a precision infrared camera. Four variants of processing the test results have been compared. The first two options are based on the use of the maximum and averaged stabilization temperature over the sample surface in the loading blocks. The third and fourth options have been based on the use of the increase of the maximum and averaged temperature at the beginning of the loading block. The estimates of the fatigue limit obtained by the above four variants of the thermogram processing method agreed with each other and with the results of standard fatigue tests. The use of the infrared thermography method made it possible to significantly reduce the number of tested samples, as well as the labor intensity and duration of tests compared with standard fatigue tests. This makes it possible recommend the described methodology for obtaining an express estimation of the fatigue limit at the stage of development of products made of composite materials when selecting design and technological solutions.</p>