In the maintenance and inspection of power systems and equipment, infrared thermal imagers are tools for diagnosis and prevention. When measuring electrical equipment, infrared thermal imagers can measure the surface temperature of an object from a safe distance, making it an indispensable tool in electrical equipment maintenance operations.
Infrared thermal imagers can effectively prevent equipment failures and unplanned power outages.
(1) For electrical installations, hidden dangers such as loose joints or poor contact, unbalanced load, overload, and overheating can be found. The potential consequences of these hidden dangers are arc, short circuit, burnout, and fire.
(2) For high-voltage electrical appliances, the hidden problems that can be found are loose joints, overheating of the casing, poor contact (tap changer), overload, unbalanced three-phase load, and poor blockage of the cooling pipe.
(3) The winding of the air-cooled device can be directly measured with an infrared thermal imager to check the excessive temperature. Any hot spot indicates the damage of the transformer winding. The consequences are arc, short circuit, burnout, and fire.
(4) For motors and generators, the hidden dangers that can be found are excessive bearing temperature, unbalanced load, short circuit or open circuit of windings, heat generation of carbon brushes, slip rings and collector rings, overload and overheating, and blockage of cooling pipelines. A faulty bearing may cause damage to the iron core or winding coil; a faulty carbon brush can damage the slip ring and current collector ring, and then damage the winding coil. Check the hot spots and repair or replace them regularly before the problem causes the equipment to malfunction. The insulation layer of the motor coil extends its life by measuring the temperature of the insulation layer of the motor coil. It may also cause damage to the drive target. In order to maintain the life of the motor, it is necessary to check whether the temperature of the power supply connection line and the circuit breaker (or fuse) are the same.
For the connector, the electrical connection part will gradually loosen the connector, due to repeated heating (expansion) and cooling (contraction) to generate heat, or surface dirt, carbon deposition and corrosion. Infrared thermal imagers can quickly determine the temperature rise that indicates a serious problem.
