How to Create a Predictive Maintenance Program

Now that’s really getting cold, I’m going to turn to uses of infrared thermography that will keep me inside and warm instead of up on a roof doing a moisture survey using thermography! In all seriousness, many of my clients use infrared thermography as part of their preventative and predictive maintenance programs.

Of course, maintenance programs aren’t “one size fits all”. Each predictive maintenance program should be developed based on your facility's size, equipment, regulations, and your productivity goals. So how do you create a predictive maintenance program?

First, it’s important to understand what some of the most common predictive maintenance methods are. Reactive maintenance is the kind of program that depends on you doing absolutely nothing. You run it til it fails or breaks. Remember that knock in your car engine? You have two choices – keep running it til the engine fails completely (mega car repair bill and lots of downtime!) or take it in to get it fixed. Letting your car engine fail when all it needed was regular oil changes is the equivalent of Reactive Maintenance.

Preventive Maintenance (PM) is when you create a schedule and perform maintenance repairs on your equipment whether it “needs it” or not. The schedule is based on either a specific amount of calendar time or machine run time. This is cheaper than reactive maintenance, but you still need personnel and a large inventory.

What this series is about is Predictive Maintenance (PdM). This means you track indicators over time to predict when equipment needs repair. An effective predictive maintenance program measures equipment on a regular basis, tracks those measurements, and then takes corrective action when measurements are about to go outside the equipment operating limits. This option is the most cost-effective method, but it does require some commitment on your part in order to effectively track performance.

Infrared surveys are particularly important for electrical equipment because failure of electrical equipment usually translates into critical mission failure. And, as you are aware, certain kinds of electrical failures pose life-threatening risks to workers.

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 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.

Infrared Inspections of Flat Roofs

Here’s a few key factors to consider when thinking about whether infrared inspections should be part of your roof maintenance program:

1. Roof construction: Infrared roof inspections work best on built up or single-ply membrane installed over, and in continuous contact with, a layer of insulation or an insulating deck. Roofs that have concrete pavers are not good candidates.

2. Time of Day: Generally infrared inspections are best performed at night after a sunny day. Daytime highs should be above 40F. There are other weather factors to consider – 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 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!

Predictive Roof Maintenance

“But the roof isn’t leaking!” is something I often hear from potential clients. If the roof isn’t actively leaking, often there is no motivation for facility managers to perform roof inspections of any kind. Typically, we are only called AFTER problems appear.

Is it really cost effective to have thermal roof scans done as part of your regular maintenance program?

Often when we inspect roofs, we will find wet areas that only comprise a small total of the entire roof. Especially in large commercial buildings where the total roof surface area can be tens of thousands of square feet large, the cost of replacing a roof can be huge.

When we use infrared thermography to identify specific areas for repair and subsequent re-assessment, we find that the savings in annual maintenance costs more than pays for the cost of the thermal roof scan.

Using thermography as a proactive maintenance tool can increase your roof performance, extended its service life, and reduce overall maintenance. If you are a facility manager who is responsible for the maintenance of your building, why not contact us to learn more? For more information, call me at 803-328-2889 or drop me an email!
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!