IR Services - Electrical
In electrical system, components get hot before they fail. An infrared inspection can help identify "hot spots" in electrical equipment. Poor connections, overloaded circuits, load imbalances, and faulty, mismatched or improperly installed components can create resistance which leads to increased heating and eventual failure.
An IR Electrical Inspection will analyze all Motor Control Centers, Electrical Panels and other electrical components throughout the facility. Infrared Cameras are able to detect anomalies due to the following indicators:
- Electrical resistance equals heat
- Excess electrical resistance equals excess heat
- Excess heat is bad (because it indicates a potential failure)
- Excess heat can be seen with an infrared camera
An IR Electrical Inspection report can isolate problem areas so repairs can be accomplished prior to catastrophic failure. The analysis will identify excessive electrical resistance, failing components, ground faults, and short circuits. It has been extremely well documented that annual and/or semi-annual IR inspections produce a large return on a small investment. The insurance industry has discovered this fact and is promoting, recommending, and in some cases requiring that the insured perform infrared surveys on a regular basis.
Electrical Inspections
Infrared electrical surveys are safe, fast and reliable. These inspections can be performed anytime without shutting down the equipment or facility. This non-contact inspection method is ideal to find loose connections and faulty equipment before they become a major problem. Preventive maintenance programs that periodically scan your equipment can detect early warning signs of overheating so you can make the repairs before an outage occurs saving you or your customer time and money.
- Analyze indoor and outdoor electrical equipment
- Inspect recent repairs or perform monthly surveys
Knife Switch: Detection of thermal anomalies is simple using infrared. Here is a knife switch that has a poor connection probably due to rust or a loose joint. These types of problems can easily be detected just by walking around and viewing each connection and component with the infrared camera.
PT: You can clearly see that one of the PTs is hotter than the other. This may be caused by one of the PTs is filled with oil and the other is solid. The temperature difference between the two is only about 5 degrees, but it shows that even small temperature differences can be detected and that these differences could alert the electrical technician to a problem.