This board had not been inspected before. A contactor failed (luckily it did not cause a fire) due to the way it was wired.
ESTABLISHED in Victoria 2013, Thermospec is the one-stop Australia-wide thermal imaging specialist.
Operating only the best quality German-made Testo 885 thermal cameras, the qualified thermographers bring decades of experience as A-grade electricians – taking care of the whole job, start to finish, every time.
Thermospec director John Tarenidis said the company can tailor its thermography services to best suit the client’s business to help minimise risks.
“We offer a range of thermal imaging inspection services to scan your electrical and mechanical equipment,” Mr Tarenidis said.
“We can safeguard your assets and eliminate costly downtime by providing a range of non-destructive thermography options to help you identify and resolve future problems.
“By taking action now, you increase production and safety, saving you money.”
Electrical
Thermospec thermal imaging services are designed to detect potential faults early, before they become problems.
“Once identified, we can help you rectify known issues,” Mr Tarenidis said.
“This gives you the confidence to move forward, avoid costly downtime and futureproof your business.”
The company specialises in personalised preventative maintenance for switchboards, power distribution, transformers, HV lines, capacitor banks, generators, and circuit breakers.
“The majority of the work we do around electrical switchboards is looking for fire hazards and potential breakdowns,” Mr Tarenidis said.
“I see them every day: you get some electrical connections which are critical, so hot you can see how bad it is with the naked eye – let alone with the camera.”
If a switchboard hasn’t been inspected, it can fail, burn and melt, causing extensive damage and downtime.
“We look at switchboards, but we also look at mechanical, motors, gear boxes, anything to do with rotating – bearings, conveyor belts – all those kinds of components,” Mr Tarenidis said.
“We’re happy to tailor our services to meet any other electrical requirements.”
Mechanical
The added advantage of thermal imaging over scheduled maintenance stoppages is that non-invasive checks can be done while equipment and machinery is still running.
Mr Tarenidis said that more and more mining operations are using thermography to complement existing preventative maintenance.
“With Thermospec thermal imaging you can test your mechanical services quickly and efficiently with no loss of productivity,” he said.
“You don’t have to stop for maintenance now, and you’re less likely to break down in the future.
“Once we’ve identified any problem areas, you can prioritise your future maintenance planning based on the urgency and/or frequency required.”
Thermospec offers preventative maintenance for motor misalignment, electric motors, gear boxes, bearings, belts and boilers.
Benefits of thermography
The thermographic camera can detect minute differences of temperature on the surface of anything.
“If you scan a conveyor that’s got hundreds of rollers on it just by taking a few minutes to walk down the line, you can pick what bearing is failing – or what bearing is hot – because that bearing is potentially going to fail,” Mr Tarenidis said.
“In the worst case it can potentially get so hot where it melts into the belt.”
The technology is multidisciplinary and complementary to preventative maintenance solutions like vibration analysis.
“It’s also an extremely quick process,” Mr Tarenidis said.
“To set up vibration analysis takes time and you can only work on one machine at a time, whereas the camera can scan across multiple machines and pick up a lot of information.
“Plus the person performing a thermographic inspection can also be doing the switchboards, as well as look at the motors and the gearboxes and within minutes pick up if there are any issues.”
It’s also non-destructive – there’s no downtime as you don’t have to turn the machines off.
“In fact, you need everything on – you need electrical switchboards loaded, you need motors and gearboxes loaded,” Mr Tarenidis said.
“And you can scan a lot in the same day.
“Depending on the size of the switchboard, it might only take five to 10 minutes depending how many faults you find.”
Case study:
Recently Thermospec was able to save a client hundreds of thousands of dollars by picking up an issue before failure occurred.
“It was a major terminal in Victoria where fuel was transferred off the ship and to a pumping station 9km from the terminal – so there’s a 9km pipeline,” Mr Tarenidis said.
“The two tandem booster pumps work hard, pumping 1m litres an hour, and upon inspection one of the gearboxes was running 12 degrees hotter than the other one.
“Although it wasn’t critical – it wasn’t going to explode right there and then – that’s an issue because one gearbox is hotter than the other.”
Luckily, spotting the issue meant the client was able to send a mechanical crew in to fix the problem before the next ship arrived.
“For the gearbox to fail, that’s tens of thousands of dollars per hour the client would lose,” Mr Tarenidis said.
“So, they were very happy we picked it up.”
More information:
Mobile:0402 477 074
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.thermospec.com.au
