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Infrared Predictive Maintenance Program

Like any commodity, service or product, infrared inspections must be sold to the client whether they are paying for an in-house program or contracting services. The good news is that infrared inspections and follow-up corrections are very cost effective and they make sense. I have yet to meet a person who, when presented with the benefits of infrared thermography, did not see its value.

In-house versus Contracted Services

In recent years, infrared camera manufactures have done amazing jobs making available quality and affordable cameras. With each new issue of maintenance publications, cameras with more features and lower prices are advertised allowing more maintenance departments to start "in-house" infrared programs. Without question, some of these programs have operated with great success.

With this said, several of Brady Infrared's clients have in-house infrared programs that are being utilized to various degrees throughout their facility or departments. The advantages of hiring a contractor to come into your facility are:

• If only a few days of inspection is needed, it may be more economical
• Contractors bring experience and equipment
• Costs for contracted services are fixed and can be budgeted
• Very little in-house paperwork and support services are needed to have contractor perform an inspection
• No camera and training cost necessary
• Contracted services are all inclusive; supplying inspection and report
• Contracted services can be used as an auditing tool for in-house program
• Contracted services can be used in a support role to help under-staffed in-house programs

How Often Should an Infrared Inspection Be Performed?

The National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) recognizes the benefits of infrared surveys to reduce accidents, save lives, and minimize unplanned shutdowns. The publication NFPA70B recommends that inspections be performed annually, and more frequently for equipment with a failure history and equipment that is critical to operation.

Most of Brady Infrared's clients perform annual inspections. Of those clients who are diligent with follow-up repairs, we have seen a steady decline in thermal problems in their facilities over the years and reduced downtime of equipment.

The Benefits

There is always a recognized benefit when problems are forecasted and acted upon as opposed to happening without warning. Infrared thermography provides that "forecasted warning" and has helped manufactures meet their clients' demands by reducing interrupted production, prevented life threatening accidents from occurring and helping in-house maintenance programs become more efficient.

Economics

The use of infrared thermography makes economic sense, regardless of the size and operation of your facility. Over the years it has consistently shown unprecedented returns on investment. According to The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, for every dollar spent on infrared service there is a $4 return on investment for materials and labor from fixing the problem before it fails. This ratio is closer to $1 to $20 if loss to production, spoilage, labor, extra expenses, etc. is considered.

Reduce Unscheduled Downtime

The more efficient a company is at producing a product, the higher the profit margins will be. This places a great demand on reliable utilities and reliable equipment. Whenever there is an interruption in one or both of these, efficiency drops and so does profits. In most cases the repairs for broken equipment is only a small percentage of the real loses a company feels; labor and products. As you are probably aware, these losses can vary from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars per hour, and sometimes even higher. Using the predictive abilities of infrared inspections, your company will know when equipment is ready to fail so you will be given time to respond.

Increase the Effectiveness of Your Maintenance Personnel Efforts

Consider how much time maintenance personnel spend doing work that is oftentimes unnecessary. For example, during a planned shutdown, they may have their highly-skilled electricians open electrical panels and control cabinets and re-torque every wire connection or rebuild every motor contactor; a timely and often daunting task. Not to mention the chance that a new problem has be introduced from the tear-down of equipment. By comparison, infrared can locate loose and deteriorated connections in a fraction of the time without tearing down or rebuilding the equipment. With the results of an infrared inspection in hand before a shutdown, manpower and materials can be planned accordingly and problems fixed efficiently.

Many maintenance departments are being asked to perform more duties with less manpower. Incorporating an infrared program into the "maintenance loop" will enable you to work smarter with fewer resources. More companies are realizing this, which is why infrared is growing so rapidly.

Acceptance Testing

We commonly hear from our clients, "Don't waist your time inspecting that piece equipment or electrical panel. It's brand new…you won't find any problems". The truth be told, we find numerous problems in newly installed equipment due to installation oversights, factory connections, and faulty components.

Each time a piece of equipment is repaired or a new component is brought on-line, thermography is the perfect tool to ensure its proper operation and give you the proper documentation to act upon warranty issues. Such a simple inspection policy will reward your company with tremendous gains in quality and reliability and, therefore profits.

Save Energy and Increase Efficiency

Infrared is the only technology that can quickly see where excessive energy is being lost. Of course, overheating connections consume electricity, but usually nowhere near the magnitude of many industrial processes. Companies with boilers, furnaces, kilns and the like will reduce their energy costs by repairing and replacing missing and damaged insulation. Identification and removal of wet insulation in flat roofs will save heating and cooling costs. Losses around doors and windows can also save energy cost and prevent moisture from entering a building. Cryogenic liquids/gas leaks can also be quickly detected using both infrared and ultrasound technologies.

Reduced Inventory Costs

Infrared predictive maintenance gives you advance warning of a potential problem and failure. In most cases, you have enough lead time to secure the parts necessary to correct the problem. Knowing what parts you need in advance allows you to reduce the number of "spare" parts sitting on shelves and collecting dust. Most maintenance departments would agree that their budgets could be better spent than on un-necessary inventory.

Equipment Design Improvement

Sometimes equipment that works well in Phoenix doesn't perform well on the coast of Massachusetts or Long Island, because there are differing environmental influences (such as salt air corrosion). Some components might work well in a moderate climate like San Diego, but fail prematurely in Orlando. Design engineers do remarkably good jobs, but they cannot foresee and know all of the stresses and idiosyncrasies of individual equipment. However, once you start finding out what and where your problems are, you will be able to improve the specifications and design of equipment in your system that continually fails, or has the potential to fail. For example, one local utility in Vermont found that one type of distribution connector that they were using did not hold up well in weather that freezes the ground four feet down. The deep frost moves the substation pads and stresses the connectors. They now use different connectors and equipment that is more forgiving to these climatic conditions.

Safety

Employers and insurance companies know that injuries and deaths are extremely costly, both in terms of time, money and survivor anguish. You can avoid such hardships by using infrared to anticipate and prevent explosions, fires and unsafe working conditions.

Aside from the obvious hazards of working around and with unsafe electrical equipment, damaged insulation is a safety problem as well. Refractory in boilers, steel mills and furnaces can degrade to the point where the structure can burn through. Wet insulation on high temperature/pressure piping can cause corrosion and catastrophic failure. Even finding a lot of wet insulation in a flat roof can be the key to preventing collapse of the roof due to overload.

Public Relations

Though most people do not think about it, infrared thermography is a great story for your public relations department. For example, many utility companies advertise to their clients that they use infrared services to enhance system reliability, thereby projecting a proactive stance and in return a positive public image. Likewise, infrared programs have been incorporated into company's ISO9000 plans as part of in-house safety awareness for electrical fires and other dangers associated with equipment failures. Here again, thermography is being used as a tool to project a proactive and safety concise image to the company's employees.

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