Every process of manufacturing needs preventive maintenance so that the product manufactured will be flawless and ready to market. Nowadays, many companies prefer to use a tool to help them improve their product quality. One of the most popular tools is infrared thermography which is currently used for preventive maintenance on the electrical and mechanical system.

The Advantages of IR Thermography

Thermography is a great tool for an industry that brings many benefits for industry. Some of the advantages are reducing maintenance cost, reducing unexpected failures, reducing repair and overhaul time, reducing spare parts inventory, increasing uptime up to 30 percent, and much more. All industries or manufacturers have to conduct regular maintenance to improve the quality of production.

Maintenance of Electrical Equipment

Given that electricity is a very vital type of energy, the continuity of electricity availability needs to be maintained at all times. The failure of a component will result in the cessation of electricity supply. To avoid this, the operation and maintenance of the electrical system must be correct. Maintenance breakdown model is an option that must be avoided. Failure of electrical components which results in the cessation of electricity supply can result in chain losses such as the cessation of the production process. Preventive maintenance can indeed reduce the likelihood of accidents. However, this maintenance model cannot detect an error during design, construction or operation.

Talking about sensing technology, infrared thermography is the most preferable diagnostic tool for the electrical equipment maintenance . All of the electrical components can be scanned and diagnosed by using IR thermography including the relays, panels, transformers, power grids, relays, and much more. The human eyes cannot see and detect issues on the components while IR thermography can do this function and detect the failure so the specialists can avoid short circuits and fires, serious accident, and stoppage of production. Basically, thermography will identify the condition of components and then the gathered information will be sent to the monitor before the technicians take an action. The tool will tell the technician what to do or it can also conduct an action automatically.

The Procedures of IR Thermography

Thermography inspection is done by checking the temperature distribution on the cable or surface of electrical components using an infrared camera. The resulting temperature pattern is evaluated by certain techniques. If there is a temperature pattern that is considered abnormal, then a search must be made to find the cause of the abnormality. The advantage of the thermography technique is that it can provide an abnormality of a temperature pattern quickly. Nearly 75% of the abnormalities found in the electricity network are connection problems.

In summary, it is undeniable that infrared thermal imaging services really has a lot of benefits for the industry. Somehow, this technology can not only used for electrical equipment inspection, but also for manufacturers to detect structural or mechanical issues. So, it is necessary to conduct regular maintenance for structural or energy losses detection on rooftop AC units, steal valves, leakage, exhaust fan; and for electric motor monitoring, and much more.