Like many manufacturing facilities in the process industries,
the mill continuously looks for new technologies to improve
process reliability, while reducing operating costs. Because
major electrical distribution equipment in the mill typically is
maintained during rotational outages every three years,
predictive maintenance (PdM) techniques are frequently used
as a means of identifying potential failure points that could be
addressed during scheduled outages. One PdM tool used
very extensively in the facility is infrared thermography. For
the past 10 years the mill has retained a full-time in-house
technician that “sweeps” the entire facility every 6 months,
checking for thermal signatures that may require attention.
Thermal imaging has proven a very effective tool across a
wide array of applications including areas such as measuring
the impact of corrosion, detecting liquid levels in process
tanks, final product conformity and of course, electrical.