Electrical maintenance:
What happens when the lights go out? To help you to eliminate or reduce unexpected down time because of failures of your electrical supply system a predictive and or preventative maintenance program should be implemented.
Predictive maintenance
Utilizing thermo-graphic analysis AFCS can evaluate all the critical bolted connections, including the bus, wire or cable; Also, devices such as motor starters, breakers, transformers and switches. This analysis will uncover areas of concern which can be looked at more closely and corrected before a breakdown occurs.
The images above illustrate how predictive maintenance can be applied. The image on the left is infrared the image on the right is a visual image of the anomaly. The top cable has a higher temperature than the other cables. This could be caused by a current imbalance of the circuit or a loose connection. If left to continue over time an unexpected outage or failure (possible fire) could occur. The repair should take less than 5 minutes.
Preventative maintenance
Preventative maintenance is more time consuming and invasive of your electrical system; Sometimes requiring a shutdown to facilitate the work. This work could consist of repairs uncovered in the predictive analysis, breaker and/or switch testing and lubrication, testing of protective devices to insure they will operate when a situation should arise.
Typical tests performed on breakers and switches are insulation resistance to insure the integrity of the electrical insulation of the devices, Contact resistance tests to evaluate the electrical conductivity of the contacts. Transformers require an insulation resistance test, turns ratio test, power factor test and if oil filled a sample of the oil is drained out for analysis.
Preventative maintenance also includes the cleaning of the equipment. The build- up of dust and dirt can lead to a degradation of the electrical resistance properties of the insulation. Lubrication of moving parts and correct seating of contact surfaces would be evaluated and corrected.
