Thermography, known popularly as infrared inspections, detects leakages by locating the heat an object’s surface emits in the form of infrared radiation. Infrared cameras are being increasingly used as a tool for thermal imaging. Thermography is a handy non-destructive inspection method used to detect damage in insulation, poor connections, or if other issues exist in energized components. If these issues persist or there are unstable loads, you may experience additional power being consumed, a higher cost of maintenance, or even more serious incidents like equipment failure. The result is frequent disruptions in service or damage to equipment and other troublesome issues. It’s therefore important that you don’t avoid carrying out infrared inspections at regular intervals.
The usefulness of thermography
Reports are claiming that 10% of fires occurring at manufacturing properties are caused by failures in the electrical systems like component failures, or issues in terminals and electrical insulation. Such failures are potentially very dangerous as they may expose workers to electrical shocks from live electrical circuits, which may even be fatal. There are lesser chances of you suffering electrical wire breakdowns if you can locate high resistance connections and carry out timely repairs. It’s a must to monitor the condition of electrical and mechanical components in all properties. An expert electrician uses thermographic inspection to monitor these and carries out necessary preventive maintenance to avoid major repairs later. This is what makes thermography very useful indeed.
Thermography and its significance
Electrical resistance causes energized electrical components to emit heat. If there’s any deterioration in the condition of a component, there’s electrical resistance which causes a rise in the heat it emits. Similarly, faulty connections emit greater heat as well causing it to have a higher temperature profile resulting in temperature variations. Thermography is significant as it helps locate faults in electrical components by spotting these variations in temperature.
The importance of thermography also lies in the benefits the technology offers us. Let’s look into them in detail.
- Fixing faults before complete breakdown: Infrared inspections help you observe electrical systems and components when they are operating under standard conditions. They help you locate faults by detecting the areas or components that are abnormally hot creating temperature anomalies. Infrared inspections are therefore a very handy and potent maintenance tool telling you when a repair is necessary. Infrared thermography by helping you locate overheated electrical connections proves useful in preparing schedules for regular repairs when downtime is planned. It makes the entire operation more reliable and productive.
- Help you save financially: Infrared inspections help locate faults and carry out repairs on time. This ensures—
Higher productivity resulting from more uptime due to fewer interruptions in operations
Fixing problems before they get serious prevent major damage to systems and machines
Fewer panic situations like excessive overtime and emergency purchase of equipment by helping identify problems on time and planning timely repairs
- Ensure safety: Infrared thermography creates a safer work environment as it helps locate faults that can be repaired on time thereby avoiding major accidents like a fire. There are no sudden surprise situations that put you on the back foot. If overheated connections aren’t located on time and the causes behind it like the bad design or overloaded circuits aren’t identified, there may be a total collapse endangering worker safety. Infrared inspection, therefore, raises safety by locating faults on time so you can carry out the necessary repairs.
- Higher quality standards: Infrared thermography by ensuring that necessary repairs are made on time helps carry out effective preventive maintenance. This ensures a high standard of quality as all machines and components are in proper condition working consistently with no sudden stoppages or power failures.
- Prevent problems before they occur: Infrared inspections help you identify temperature differences caused by heated electrical connections or high friction. It indicates that a problem exists which will get worse if left unattended. Such timely identification of hot spots helps avoid service failures that cause costly downtime, equipment damage, panic situations, fires, or even worse.
Infrared thermography proves especially useful when you are buying a house. Before you seal the deal, it’s vital that you check if all the electrical systems are working properly and are in a good condition. House sellers have earned notoriety for carrying out patchwork to hide serious faults to give a house a perfect look, which ultimately results in a huge bill for expensive repairs after you purchasing the property.
While every system in the house might appear to be in perfect condition to the naked eye, they might be collapsing. Infrared thermography helps you locate every fault, from the minutest to any major one so you have a true picture of the condition of the electrical systems in the house you’re planning to buy. It puts you in a position to request the seller to carry out necessary repairs before they have sold you the house.
When is a thermographic scan needed?
You know that a thermography inspection is needed when there’s a sudden rise in power consumption. This is the most obvious indicator. A leakage in the insulation or the electrical system is the likely cause behind the sudden spike. You know that it’s time for an infrared inspection during such an abnormal rise in power consumption. In an ideal situation, a thermography inspection should be carried out once a year on transformers, switchgear, circuit panels, etc. The results should form the basis of deciding when a to rescan should be scheduled. The equipment type, power consumption, and the age of the electrical system should be the other deciding factors.
Conclusion
You should schedule a thermographic inspection to boost the performance and safety of the electrical systems whenever required. Ideally, it should be carried out every year. Thermography is very important as it helps you avoid costly repairs by carrying out effective and efficient preventive maintenance, which makes it an effective cost saver. Timely repairs also help you avoid downtime or other serious situations like a fire caused by overheating. The importance of thermography should never be undermined. It’s vital for your safety and wellbeing.
