Electrical Hot Spots

Infrared camera inspections can find hot spots in electrical equipment caused by defects in their connections or components.  Infrared thermography is used to find areas of excess heat (caused by increased resistance).  Thus enabling the problems can be located and corrected before the component fails and creates a safety hazard.  These failures can cause damage to the component and can result in productivity loss.  Because increased heating is a sign of failure, infrared is the best diagnostic tool available for finding these hot connections in the early stages before failure.  This is why your insurance company may have asked for an electrical infrared inspection, to find and prevent problems before they cause damage to your personnel, equipment and facility.

In general, hot spots within electrical systems are indicative of problems such as loose connections or overloaded circuits.  For some electrical components, high temperature operation is normal and an infrared imager can be used to help ensure that these devices are functioning.

During a routine infrared inspection of electrical distribution systems, similar components under similar load are compared to each other. Items appearing inexplicably hot or cold are reported as exceptions to be further investigated and appropriately repaired.  For components that normally operate at elevated or high temperature, a lack of heat may be indicative of an exception.

For safety sake, make plans for infrared camera inspections on a regular basis, of your electrical and mechanical equipment.