Feature Safety
one go. The potential savings in inspection time and the ability to inspect live systems, including the busbars, easily justified the investment, explains the company. According to Potter the windows are really high quality and very well constructed. So, the specification was approved on 6th November 2012, a comprehensive installation plan was then drawn up by IRISS and the entire job com- pleted by Christmas. The IRISS team worked flexibly to complete the job within the time constraints imposed by 24 hour operation. Having installed an isolation sheet on each cabinet, the thick door panel was removed to the access road where the required hole was cut with a jigsaw and the appropriate IRISS CAP Series window fitted. This work continued until 72 windows had been installed, comprising a combination of 6in, 12in and 24in products all available in the standard range. The largest window is suitable for the thermal inspection of busbars and multiple components.
The CAP product can be fully customised to suit the applica- tion and benefits to users are manifold, explains IRISS. A window no longer needs to be round, nor is its size restricted; a crystal window by comparison becomes too fragile beyond a 4in diameter. IRISS technology reduces the number of windows required, their installation time and associated costs.
Fast inspection
The impact on inspection time of the IRISS CAP Series windows was immediate. IRISS undertook the first thermal imaging survey on 8th January this year – and it is testimony to the skill of the London Stansted Airport maintenance team that only two minor faults were discovered.
According to Potter, it took just five hours to complete the job in daylight hours – previously it would take two nights to inspect one panel. In addition, there’s now no need for isolations or back feed and the safety of the engineers is completely assured. A single thermographer with a thermal imaging camera and without PPE can do everything. The resultant thermal inspection report from IRISS provided a comprehensive snapshot of the health of the low voltage network at the airport.
Potter added: “I now have the thermal performance of each system printed out in this report and, for the first time, a benchmark on which to base future thermal inspections. Previously, it would have taken us a couple of years to inspect the whole complete network and even then we had no idea what was happening under load.
For this project, 72 windows were installed,
comprising a
combination of 6in, 12in and 24in products all available in the standard range
“All we could say is that everything had been thoroughly inspected. Now we can
see the live circuits and cables and the temperature rise on busbars. This means we are able to apply trends to every system. In short, I now know the terminal is truly safe and that’s a big tick against my list. I’m really sold on this technology.” He added: “Quite simply, this was not possible before we installed IRISS CAP Series infrared inspection windows. We were able to check individual circuits when they were switched off but busbars continued to be a particular con- cern. They contain a huge amount of copper that absorbs a lot of heat over time before they go into fault status. You can’t see this if the system isn’t live.”
IRISS
www.iriss.com
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