Infrared thermography and Electrical Maintenance

I am not exactly sure what you mean by "cost benefit analysis of poor electrical connections". IR Thermography can be used to investigate and locate poor electrical connections and some other problems such as circuit overloading, given a proper analysis of the results, but this is only one tool for locating poor connections. The cost benefit is the maintenance time required to identify where there may be problems.

Alasdair

Hello,


In addition to the mechanical checks on control installations, I have an IR scan carried out after installation to identify potential hot spots. Over the years, I have seen Motors, PSU's, MCB's, and wire terminations that are hot which has meant we can investigate & rectify issues before any downtime occurs. We also use as a part of our predictive maintenance schedule. Having the ability to detect potential issues and rectify before the issue becomes a fault resulting in downtime has a definite saving to business, especially if your business in FMCG.


Regards,


Jon

Hi Roderick,

Your question makes a lot more sense with your explanation. As Jonathan has said IR scans are used to identify hot spots which includes loose connections but I don't imagine anyone has carried out a cost benefit analysis as the immediate action is to fix the loose connections. I would endorse this action as the loose connection could be a potential fire risk and the cost benefit of fixing it compared to having a fire needs little analysis. I also suspect that the load shedding you mention is as much, of not more, down to overloading of the supply circuits rather than an effect of poor connections. However since IR scans will also give indications of overloaded circuits and other local hot spots there may be benefit in the study you suggest.

Alasdair

Slightly off topic, but I've been amazed by the performance and value of ~£200 smartphone plug-in thermal cameras. Mine has earned its cost many times over.

Staying slightly off topic, I agree Alex. I was looking at ir cameras a few years ago and they were a no go due to the cost, now they are cheaper than a quality multi meter. As a result, they should become a 'standard' tool box item.


Regards,


Jon

Hi Roderick,

 

I assume that you are able to access information from National Grid and other Power Companies?  ERA Technology (with its roots in the supply industry) would be an obvious point of contact? 

 

From 1980-84 when I worked for CEGB Transmission (132KV and above) now National Grid , “Thermo-vision” surveys were being introduced in Substations and from Helicopters for Transmission Lines.  Hot spots would be investigated at the first outage opportunity. In those days, if you wanted to measure the energy being wasted, before and after Ductor readings, would give before and after IsquaredR losses. Since the price of the energy is known, cost benefit analysis , incorporating the cost of repair is fairly simple, as would be with a modern sensibility CO2 contribution or any other derivative.  “System losses” were not a particularly high priority at the time, security (aka reliability) of supply was, especially during the intensely political times of 1984.   

 

I assume that you are seeking temperature versus reliability studies, where the risk of failure or degradation can be weighed against the cost of actions. On large supply plant such as I referred to, catastrophic failures were rare, but the costs and potential risks of a “hot spot” in an oil filled device considerable, as are anything that could cause catastrophic mechanical failure or sudden release of electrical fault energy etc.  This is at the extreme and rather obvious end of thermal work, hopefully others will point you at something in electronics etc., after all we had exploding batteries recently.        

Hi ,

I quite agree with you to have some mechanism of preventative  maintenance in place. But Some of these issues should be ironed out during inspection otherwise costs will escalate.



kind Regards


Kuldip

I’m in a meeting at the moment let me know what telephone number and when to call you