Thermography (thermal imaging) makes it possible to identify electrical defects such as loose connections and over loaded circuits (the most common cause of electrical fires), transformer cooling faults, motor winding faults and induced currents.

A thermographic survey inspects electrical equipment including distribution fuseboards, MCB boards, contactors, switch boards, transformers, motors, battery banks, UPS's, control panels, switch fuses and isolators etc whilst the equipment is in operation, causing no disruption to business operations.

Electrical thermal imaging surveys are non-intrusive, enabling inspections to be completed safely and efficiently, without interruption to your business operations. Appointing Red Current Ltd to undertake a thermographic survey of your electrical systems enables the following benefits to be realised:

Compliments the Periodic Fixed Wire Testing:

Electrical thermography identifies electrical issues that are unlikely to be detected during fixed wire testing and inspections.

Periodic Fixed Wire Testing is carried out to ensure that safety devices such as earth protection, fuses and circuit breakers operate as required under short circuit and fault load conditions. These devices provide no protection against the risks associated with poor connections.

Thermal Imaging should be carried out following fixed wire testing to ensure poor connections have not been introduced during the Fixed Wire testing activity.

Surveys are non-intrusive…… no disruption to normal business operations.

There is no other technique that is able to identify electrical issues such as poor connections, overloading, phase imbalances, faulty equipment etc. as safely and as quickly. A thermographic survey is non-intrusive, meaning no disruption to normal business operations.

Enables any requirement for intrusive maintenance to be planned around normal business operations.

Electrical thermography enables the identification of only those items of equipment that require remedial works together with the severity of the defect. This enables maintenance to be suitably planned around operational commitments maximising the availability of plant and equipment.

Potential to extend equipment lifecycle and identify energy savings.

A thermographic survey can give an excellent insight into the operational effectiveness of equipment, enabling the identification of opportunities to make energy savings together with increasing the operational lifecycle of equipment.

Reduction in the cost of breakdowns

Depending on the type of equipment and its location, the cost of electrical failure can run into many thousands of pounds in repairs, lost production, injury claims, etc.

As defects are found before they cause equipment to fail, the associated cost of repairs is minimal compared to the cost of equipment failure.

Below shows a thermal image recorded of an MCB distribution board during an electrical thermal imaging survey within a data centre electrical switch room.

As can be seen in the thermal image below, there is a temperature rise toward the blue/L3 supply cable termination which was due to poor electrical contact at the cable termination and within the switch assembly.

Analysis Details	Temp	Diff Amb
Sp1 - Cable Termination	73.4°C	48°C
Sp2 - Cable Reference Temp	30.2°C	5°C
Ar1 - Maximum Temp	130.1°C	105°C
Dt1 - Temp Rise (Sp1 - Sp2)	43.3°C	n/a

Below shows a thermal image recorded of the supply cables to the main switch panel during an electrical thermographic survey within a data centre in East London.

As can be seen in the thermal image below, there is a temperature rise toward the L1 supply phase cable termination which was due to poor electrical contact between the cable lug and busbar assembly.

Analysis Details	Temp	Diff Amb
Sp1 - Cable temp (L1)	85.4°C	61°C
Sp2 - Cable temp (L2)	46.8°C	23°C
Sp3 - L1 Busbar temp	119.2°C	95°C
Dt1 - Temp Rise (Sp1 - Sp2)	38.6°C	n/a

Below shows a thermal image recorded of two contactor overloads within an electrical control panel supporting Foundry process.

As can be seen in the thermal image below, the overload bodies are hot possibly due to incorrect selection or settings of the overloads for the driven load (fan motors).

Analysis Details	Temp	Diff Amb
Sp1 - Overload Body 3Q3	96.1°C	62°C
Sp2 - Overload Body 3Q4	89.5°C	55°C
Ar1 - Maximum temp in area	110.1°C	76°C

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Got a question?

Give us a call on 0118 3320819 or submit your enquiry to our team who are on hand to assist.

Load measurements were recorded by the Engineering team on site which were then compared to the design specifications of both the overloads and driven load. This revealed that the load was too high which was later found to be due to filters being blocked within the process. The filters were then replaced which reduced operational load on the fan motors to within the design settings for the overload and fan motors.

The above example shows that in the right hands, thermography is an excellent predictive maintenance tool than can provide a superb assessment of the operational performance of process related equipment.

To find out more about thermal imaging of electrical equipment contact us today with your enquiry.

Below shows a thermal image recorded of an isolating switch supplying an air compressor.

As can be seen in the thermal image below, there is a temperature rise toward the cable terminations on the supply side of the switch. This was due to poor electrical contact at the cable terminations. Note that the isolator cover could not be opened as it was mechanically interlocked.

Analysis Details	Temp	Diff Amb
Sp1 - Cable temp	40.8°C	19°C
Sp2 - Cable reference temp	33.1°C	11°C
Dt1 - Temp rise (Sp1 - Sp2)	7.7°C	n/a

Contact Red Current Today

Contact Red Current Today

Contact Red Current Today

Contact Red Current Today

Got a question?

Give us a call on 0118 3320819 or submit your enquiry to our team who are on hand to assist.

Although the temperature rise was only 7.7°C, the temperature at the cable terminations within the switch were likely to be significantly hotter. Therefore the anomaly was assigned a priority category of Level 2 requiring attention at the earliest opportunity.

The Engineering Team scheduled a shutdown of the compressor to carryout investigative/remedial works. Shortly after shutting the equipment down, the team used their own thermal imaging camera and recorded temperatures inside the isolator in excess of 90°C.

The cables were all re-terminated and the switch mechanism was replaced before re-commissioning the equipment.

The above example shows how important it is to take into consideration possible temperatures at the source of the defect, such that the priority given to remedial works is suitable to prevent damage and unplanned production downtime.

To find out more about the use of thermography for electrical inspections contact us today with your enquiry.

Red Current’s thermographic survey approach and reporting structure has been set up to satisfy the requirements expected by insurance companies, Safety auditors, Maintenance/Engineering Managers, etc. Survey reports comprises of four sections:

1. Introduction/Report Summary – This provides detail on the survey carried out together a top level summary of the overall findings.

2. Main Body Report Pages – Where faults/anomalies are identified, an individual report page is produced providing a description of the fault, its severity and recommended remedial action.

3. Condition Monitoring Assessment – These pages provide an understanding of the current operational condition of equipment that have been reported during previous surveys.

4. Appendices – These pages provide a checklist and images of every asset inspected during the survey. This provides an auditable record of what was inspected, together with equipment health at the time of the survey.

All electrical thermographic surveys are carried out by Electrically qualified thermographic engineers, certified to ISO 18436-7. Our survey approach follows a strict set of thermal imaging standards with method statements which have been suitably risk assessed and dove tails with local/company specific safe working procedures.

Although thermal images often appear to be self explanatory when presented in a thermographic report, correctly identifying defects/anomalies in the first place relies on two key factors:

1. The thermographer’s understanding of the construction and operation of the electrical systems together with its possible failure modes.
2. The thermographer’s ability to interpret what he/she is observing when using a thermal imaging camera such that the correct conclusion is drawn and presented within the report.

Without these two factors in place, there is very real risk that anomalies/defects are misunderstood and incorrectly reported. For instance reporting supposed defects which are in fact operating normally, or even worse missing/not identifying actual defects.

To prevent this risk, the use of a thermographer that is certified to ISO 18436 is vital. The certification scheme ensures that thermographers have been suitably trained, with their knowledge assessed and have accumulated the required amount experience in undertaking thermographic surveys within the electrical application of thermography.

Red Current follow a strict set of thermal imaging standards and only employ thermographers that are certified to ISO 18436, therefore you can be assured that the thermographer undertaking thermographic surveys in your facility will possess the two key factors discussed above.

The short answer to this is yes.

The use of thermography as a predictive maintenance tool is to identify anomalies such as poor connections as early as possible to enable remedial activities to be scheduled with minimum business interruption.

A poor connection can be identified at temperatures only a few degrees above ambient therefore unless the infrared camera is able to see through the panel covers, (which they can't) it is simply impossible to identify this type of fault in the early stages.

There are times when it may not be possible to remove covers for example:

• the cover is mechanically interlocked with the supply isolator
• the Health and Safety risk associated with removing the panel cover is unacceptable
• in the case of MCB boards, the risk of inadvertently switching off an MCB whilst removing the cover will cause unacceptable business interruption

In the cases above it is still worthwhile surveying equipment with the covers on, as if the connection is bad enough, it may be possible to detect a fault before too much damage has occurred. It is very much a case of something is better than nothing. It should be recognized that if an anomaly is detected with the covers on, it is likely to require urgent attention which can create significant pressure on those in charge of managing maintenance activities around business operations.

The thermal images below show an MCB board both the cover on and with it removed. As can be seen from the image on the left, there is little sign of anything wrong as MCBs under load will operate at temperatures up to 60°C. However with the cover removed (Right), the prognosis is quite different.

The image below shows the right hand image again, this time thermally focused. From this it is clear to see that the cause of the temperature rise is due to a poor connection between the supply side of the MCB and distribution board busbar assembly.

To find out more about the use of thermography on electrical equipment contact us today with your enquiry.