What are the benefits of infrared thermography for detecting machinery faults?

1 How infrared thermography works

Infrared thermography is based on the principle that all objects emit infrared radiation, which is invisible to the human eye but can be detected by thermal imaging cameras. These cameras convert the infrared radiation into visible images that show the temperature distribution of the object. By analyzing the thermal patterns, you can identify hot spots, cold spots, or anomalies that indicate a potential problem or fault in the object.

2 Benefits of infrared thermography for plant maintenance

Infrared thermography can help you improve the reliability, safety, and efficiency of your plant by detecting and preventing machinery faults before they cause breakdowns, accidents, or losses. This non-contact, non-destructive, and non-invasive method is fast, accurate, and versatile; it can cover large areas, scan complex systems, and measure different parameters in a short time. Additionally, it is cost-effective as it can reduce maintenance costs, downtime costs, energy costs, and repair costs by finding and fixing problems early.

4 Common applications of infrared thermography in plant maintenance

Infrared thermography is a useful tool for a variety of applications in plant maintenance. It can detect loose connections, overloaded circuits, faulty components, and insulation defects in electrical systems; misalignment, friction, wear, lubrication issues, and bearing failures in mechanical systems; leaks, blockages, corrosion, or contamination in fluid systems; and heat loss, heat gain, or uneven distribution of heat in thermal systems. Its ability to spot these issues can help prevent overheating, arcing, fire hazards, excessive heat, vibration, noise, flow issues, pressure issues, and temperature issues.

5 Tips and tricks for infrared thermography

To get the most out of infrared thermography, you can use some tips and tricks that can enhance your skills and results. For example, selecting a color palette that suits your application and preference, such as rainbow, grayscale, or ironbow, and adjusting the contrast and brightness to highlight thermal differences. Additionally, you may choose to use a wide-angle or telephoto lens depending on your inspection distance and field of view. Furthermore, emissivity correction and reflected temperature compensation can improve accuracy of temperature measurements by taking into account surface characteristics and ambient conditions of the object. Also, image fusion or picture-in-picture can combine thermal image with visible image to help locate and identify problems more easily. Finally, annotations, markers, or labels can be added to thermal images to provide information such as date, time, location, or temperature of the object.