In the process industry, consistency is essential. Surveillance personnel rely on various monitoring methods, from fixed-mount sensors to handheld thermal imagers, to track the real-time status of products and key equipment. This is because temperature measurement and control are one of the most important factors in ensuring consistency in the process industry's production process.
By monitoring the temperature, it is possible to detect the components of the overheating conveyor system, help solve abnormal problems in the power supply system, predict equipment operation failures, detect clogging in the supply pipeline, and identify product inconsistencies.
Due to the large number of process industries and the variety of equipment involved, the possibilities for thermal monitoring are limitless. One way is to regularly monitor critical equipment and then check equipment in harsh environments. For example, the presence of slurries, solvents, and particulates in many processes can place a great burden on the motor, affecting bearings, windings, and insulation. This effect manifests itself in the heat that can be detected by the thermal imager.
Check where?
The distribution system is one of the key items for inspection. Maintaining continuous high-quality electricity is essential for process production to be handled by thermal images, to identify bad electrical connections, unbalance, overload, harmonics, and other impending electrical faults, and to prevent non-uniformity or Insufficient power supply or even stop production.
Motors, fans, pumps and conveyors. Heat checks on bearings, shafts, housings, belts, retarders, and other components that can give off heat before a failure can prevent accidental failure of the operating equipment.
Blockage of the pipeline. In the process, the correct amount of fluid needs to be delivered to the correct location at the correct time. If a blockage occurs in the pipeline, it will cause a chain reaction, which will cause the entire process to be out of regulation and cause oscillation. This can cause the motor to switch on and off too often, which in turn can cause more frequent inrush currents, increase the load on the power system, and create harmonics that can reduce system efficiency and ultimately lead to equipment failure. Thermal imaging measurements can often find problematic obstacles and allow corrective actions to be taken before the entire loop, and the loop can be recalibrated by various techniques such as calibrators and multimeters.
Valve calibration. Flow control valves are also critical to ensure that the fluid is delivered to the process in a timely manner. The thermal imager can be used to monitor leaks, sticking, or excessive friction. In addition, the excitation coil of the valve may overheat due to over-operation, resulting in problems such as current leakage or valve size mismatch. When the thermal imaging inspection shows a problem, the technician can correct it by calibrating the valve or valve positioner.
What to look for?
In general, thermal imagers are used to find hot spots, cold spots, and other anomalies. The following are monitoring recommendations for key equipment and what thermal imaging methods may detect:
Motors (high temperature bearings and windings), motor control centers and switchgear (unbalanced, overloaded), steam systems (faulty traps, blocked pipes), cooling systems (fouling cooling towers, plugged heat exchangers ), Combustion furnaces and boilers (damaged refractory layer, leakage outlet), pumps (high temperature bearings, leakage seals), process piping (invalid insulation, reduced flow), storage tanks and vessels (product or slurry level, Leakage), valves (leakage, adhesion), conveyor belts (high temperature bearings and drives).
Each time the device is inspected, a thermal image of the device must be kept on the computer and the condition of the device checked over time. In this way, baseline data for comparison can be obtained to help determine if a hot spot (or cold spot) is normal or rising and verify the effectiveness of the repair.
Dealing with Problems Whenever a problem is detected with the thermal imager, the accompanying software is used to record the measurement results in a report that contains a digital photo in addition to a thermal image of the device. This is the best way to report the problems you found and suggest repairs. In general, if a catastrophic failure appears to be imminent, the equipment must be stopped or, if possible, repaired while the equipment is running.
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