I had an interesting call from a customer last week; they had a piece of equipment unexpectedly fail the day after they had it serviced. The facilities folks were being run through the wringer and being challenged to answer to their senior management if they’d “done enough” to prevent this.

Certainly, no maintenance programs, whether preventive, predictive, time-based, conditioned based, and so on, can prevent every failure. Environmental issues, natural and unnatural power events, human error, Murphy’s Law, animals or other pests can seemingly thwart the best design and maintenance intentions and despite your best efforts, at some point, you find yourself standing before the CEO or a board trying to respond to the question: had you done enough to prevent this from occurring. This situation brings out the worst in Monday morning quarterbacking and those empowered with hindsight are giving you the third degree. In your own mind, you may even be silently asking yourself in reality, how confident are you that you had done enough?

In this case we ended up discussing Infrared, or thermal imaging, testing and if that would have caught this specific problem before the failure occurred. Questions like: what equipment should we be scanning, when, and how often came up. What can IR testing detect? Is it a dependable technology?

Thermal imaging cameras have been commercially available since the mid-sixties and they can catch anomalies that can’t be seen with the naked eye. It’s not Superman’s X-ray vision, nor is it a crystal ball, but it can catch a myriad of problems that otherwise would go unnoticed until failure occurred. Infrared testing can detect loose connections, overheated windings, insulation losses, insulation breakdowns. This technology works on high voltage, medium voltage and low voltage systems; motors, pumps, controls, substations, distribution gear, transformers, switches and switchboards, boilers, pipework, valves, and heat exchangers, and testing is done when the equipment is running; so no shut downs are required. (Unless you identify a problem and need to shut down to correct it.) In addition to identifying problems, including poor connections, documenting motor heat signatures, corrosion, and internal damage, IR can provide insight into equipment performance. For electrical insulation a common rule of thumb states: for every 10-degree C rise in temperature the life of the insulation system is reduced by half. So, even short-term overheating can cut the life of your equipment by 50%!

Partnering with a qualified, independent testing company can provide you with the necessary electrical testing to help you evaluate and assess the condition of your equipment. Their technicians have the training, experience, and education to identify issues, ensure a thorough assessment, and provide the follow-up on the corrective actions to validate the repair.

Some of the benefits of a NETA accredited testing organization:

• The technicians have broad-based knowledge — they have been trained to inspect, test, maintain, and calibrate all types of electrical equipment in a broad base of industries.
• The certified technicians meet stringent educational and experience requirements set forth in accordance with ANSI/NETA ETT-2000 Standard for Certification of Electrical Testing Technicians.
• A registered professional engineer reviews all engineering reports.
• All tests will be performed objectively, independent of the manufacturer of the equipment, following the current NETA specifications and using calibrated instruments traceable to the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST).
• The testing organization is a well-established, full-service electrical testing and maintenance business.

A good testing company can help you identify what testing program will provide the best benefit and value for your maintenance dollar.  They provide you with a partner you can depend on to support you and provide impartial testing of your system. And as a bonus you’ll have the peace of mind, the confidence, and the reports to show all you’ve done to keep the facility operating.