Sunday, March 9, 2014

Understanding The Importance Of Electrical Infrared Inspection

By Lisa Williamson


In electrical systems, high temperatures normally indicate an impending trouble. This can result from unnecessarily high resistance, short circuits, poor connections, ground fault or any other failing components common with electrical equipment. The problem must be pinpointed and rectified early enough as complete failures are normally expensive and at times can results to catastrophes. Instead of struggling to find the incipient failures through visual and other manual inspection methods which are costly, time consuming and may not pinpoint the problem, engineers are now turning to electrical infrared inspection that has proved to be the most effective alternative.

The general recommendation is that all parts of electrical system that are exposed to vibrations and or any other movements are inspected at least every six months while the rest are inspected on annual basis. For the system exposed to earthquakes, frozen winter conditions, very strong winds and tsunamis, there is a need for more frequent testing.

The target is to pinpoint any damages or potential threats resulting from improper installations, points of weaknesses, contamination, corrosion or worn out devices. The other problems can result from ground faults and improper assembly leading to increased resistance which is the recipe for overheating which on its own is a danger to the rest of the system and the surrounding objects. If left unchecked power outages are the least of problems that can result.

The most common system components that are subject to periodic surveys include the bus ducts, the distribution panels, distribution centers, receptacle panels, the sub-feed panels, transformers, the switchgears, the lighting system, uninterruptible power supplies, the disconnects and several other related components. With infrared surveys, the faults, loose connections and any potential hazards in these components can easily be detected with the minimal time and cost.

If you choose to use this form of testing, there is no need to shut down any part of the system as the testing is non-contact and nondestructive (NDT) at the same time. This means that all components can be inspected under their normal loads in the normal operating system. It involves scanning with the aim of revealing improper connections, damages and any form of flaws well in advance before they can result to any disaster.

With the endorsement and approval from the InterNational Electrical Testing Association and the National Fire Protection Association and other related regulatory authorities, it is a mistake to continue depending on the manual method of testing.

Among several benefits you stand to benefit from, there is the precise pinpointing of hotspots, reduced down time, elimination of unscheduled outages, reduced cost of energy due to efficiency and predictive or proactive approach to electrical maintenance program. The general reduction of resource deployed (human resources and finances) also translates to lower cost of energy.

It is important to trust the surveying services to a company that has expert engineers, the necessary machinery for the job and well proven track record in order to enjoy the full benefits of this new technology.




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