Preventing Fire Loss and Insurance Costs Through Infrared Testing

In my last blog, I wrote about reducing your commercial energy bill. An added benefit to using thermography to reduce your energy output is that you might also be able to substantially reduce your insurance costs.

By performing an infrared scan as part of your preventative maintenance plan, you may identify possible sources of electrical failure. CNA estimates that more than 30% of fire losses can be attributed to electrical failure. That's a HUGE number that can be largely preventable! (Check out their safety bulletin here: CNA Commercial Property ). In fact, by preventing proof of thermal scans as part of your preventative maintenance program, many insurers will provide discounts on the cost of insurance.

CNA points out that infrared testing can prevent loss due to electrical failure or fire for several reasons, including:

1. Reducing damage caused by over-torquing connections. Infrared can pinpoint which switchgear connections actually need tightening, preventing over-correction and early failure.
2. Detecting loose or corroded connections.
3. Identifying faulty connections.

Remember, electrical connections get hot before they fail - and infrared scanning is the best way to "see" what the naked eye can't. The investment in hiring a certified infrared thermographer is well worth the knowledge that you won't see hundreds of thousands of dollars go up in smoke!
Interested in learning more? Give me a call at 803-3328-2889 and let’s talk!

IR Infrared Services provides top quality thermographic service at a competitive price to commercial and residential end users in North Carolina and South Carolina. For more information, visit http://www.irinfraredservices.com/ or follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/infraredscans. We are proud to offer the very best thermography services in North and South Carolina!

Commercial Energy Bills Don't Have to Be Astronomical

If you are responsible for the maintenance of a large building or factory, rising energy bills are an ongoing concern. This past summer has seen record heat waves, resulting in increased energy consumption as we try to keep cool. When the seasons change and it begins to get cold, high energy costs continue to be a factor.

Proper building insulation is the most significant factor in reducing the energy consumption required to heat or cool a building. Unless you have a very old building, today’s insulation does not “go bad”. This doesn’t mean you can breathe a huge sigh of relief just yet.

Building showing massive heat loss

Two insulation factors can affect energy performance. First, missing insulation is a common problem. Once the walls go up, it’s hard to tell if your insulation is installed properly or if it’s missing entirely in places.

Second, if you have or have had any type of water leaks or moisture seepage, the insulation may be wet. Wet insulation has almost no insulating value at all.

Missing Insulation

Thermal imaging services can accurately identify weak areas inside a building envelope. Using infrared thermal imaging, we can accurately determine the areas where insulation is insufficient, areas where there are water penetration problems, and air leakage through the building envelope.

Commercial building thermography is non-invasive and cost-efficient. Local insulation improvement can reduce heat loss during the winter or heat escape during the summer. The larger your building, the greater your potential savings.

When was the last time you checked what was going on behind the walls? Want more information? Call me at 803-328-2889 or drop me an email!

We believe so strongly in using Infrared Thermal Imaging for your Predictive Maintenance, that we created a Discount Membership for our repeat customers. Learn more about it here: http://www.irinfraredservices.com/PremierMember.html

IR Infrared Services provides top quality thermographic service at a competitive price to commercial and residential end users in North Carolina and South Carolina. For more information, visit www.irinfraredservices.com or follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/infraredscans. We are proud to offer the very best thermography services in North and South Carolina!

6 Steps To Create a Predictive Maintenance Program

Creating an effective Predictive Maintenance Program requires some upfront work. Not every piece of equipment in your facility is mission-critical. Knowing the failure rate of your equipment and your manufacturer recommendations is very important. You will need to create some type of database that holds this information as well as the tracking measurements of your program. Generally, these are the basic steps to setting up a Predictive Maintenance Program:

1. List your critical processes, applications and equipment

2. Prioritize each item on your list in order of the impact a failure would have. For example, high failure impact would be equipment that:

• Directly impacts safety, the environment, revenue, or customer relations
• Is unique or costly to replace, or used constantly (24x7)
• Is difficult to find spare parts for or has a long lead time for repair

3. Determine how likely your equipment is to fail. You can use PdM software, past maintenance history and internal operator experience (e.g.: when units broke/ how often, why, and what they cost to fix) to make this estimate.

4. Create an inspection schedule based on failure probability and critical impact.

5. Set up a database that contains the above information for each process, application and piece of equipment.

6. Take baseline data and store it for each piece of equipment. Be sure to include repair histories, manufacturer recommendations and operator knowledge: when units broke/ how often, why, and what they cost to fix.

Most facilities either purchase or develop a specialized database. These databases are referred to as asset management systems (AMS) or computer managed maintenance system (CMMS). In addition to the information above, many of these systems also track warranty status, depreciation records and purchasing information.

So why am I, a certified thermographer, writing about predictive maintenance? Because steps 3, 4, 5, and 6 are generally when we get called in. The use of infrared (IR) cameras in predictive maintenance is well established. Using an infrared camera, we produce thermographic images of your equipment. These temperature measurements provide an early warning of potential equipment failures and unsafe working conditions.

We help create your baseline data, and then be part of your regular inspection schedule. Most mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic equipment can be measured and tracked for your preventative and/or predictive maintenance program using infrared thermography. Most of our clients find that bringing us in while they are creating their programs is most cost-effective and efficient way of creating initial baseline data (and many times we find immediate issues that need attention!)

Interested in learning more? Give me a call at 803-3328-2889 and let’s talk!

IR Infrared Services provides top quality thermographic service at a competitive price to commercial and residential end users in North Carolina and South Carolina. For more information, visit http://www.irinfraredservices.com/ or follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/infraredscans. We are proud to offer the very best thermography services in North and South Carolina!

This article series was developed using ideas from http://www.plantservices.com/articles/2009/124.html?page=full and http://www.myflukestore.com/crm_uploads/part_one_of_a_predictive_maintenace_series.pdf for source material.