When you’re in charge of maintaining a building, your main concerns are safety and efficiency. This is true whether you’re the manager of an apartment building or the overseer at a large manufacturing plant.
Unfortunately, unexpected maintenance situations are sure to arise from time to time. If only there were some way to identify and fix problems before they occur.
Infrared thermography is a powerful tool for predictive maintenance. It helps find potential problem situations before they cause safety and financial issues. Read on to learn more about infrared thermography and how it can benefit your building.
What Is Infrared Thermography?
The main goal of infrared thermography is to provide a map of how hot or cold certain areas of your building are. This information can identify areas that may be worn out.
Infrared thermography is a method of measuring the infrared energy that is emitted from an object. When conducting an infrared thermography inspection of a building, technicians use an infrared scanner.
These scanners capture infrared images of structures and equipment. The levels of infrared energy recorded then show a heat map image in either colour or greyscale.
Knowing the temperature of equipment is important for many types of maintenance. For instance, a piece of equipment that is unusually hot could indicate an impending breakdown. On the other hand, abnormally cool areas could point to a lack of insulation.
Infrared thermography inspections are completely non-invasive. They are best conducted on equipment and buildings that are running as usual. This means you won’t have to schedule costly and inconvenient downtime for your thermography testing.
The Benefits of Infrared Thermography Testing
Infrared thermography is a valuable tool for predictive maintenance. This is true for commercial, residential, and industrial buildings alike. Thermography testing allows you to discover unusual temperatures that are often the first signs of breakdown and inefficiency.
Thermography testing can help to identify issues such as defective equipment, loose connections, open circuits, moisture, and lack of insulation. Here are a few of the ways infrared thermography can help keep your building up and running.
Areas of Increased Heat
Infrared thermography can identify areas of a building or equipment that are unusually or even dangerously hot. The first sign of a future breakdown is often increased temperature. This can lead to malfunction or even more serious consequences.
Finding these issues early on is important to prevent much larger problems. These could include total equipment failure or fire.
Sometimes, the issue can be fixed by balancing the load, fixing the wiring, or decreasing the friction on a particular point. Other times, the entire piece of equipment must be replaced. In either case, doing so ahead of time prevents complications and more costly damages.
Areas of Increased Cold
Areas of increased cold can be a sign that you don’t have adequate insulation. Not having enough insulation in your building can lead to increased energy costs caused by escaping heat.
Cold areas can also suggest that moisture has gotten into your structure or equipment. You should deal with excess moisture early on to prevent mould and rot from forming.
Mould and rot can lead to serious complications. They can damage structures and equipment and negatively impact the health of your employees.
Safety Considerations
Using infrared thermography helps locate maintenance issues before they become safety hazards. If areas with too much heat are left unchecked, it can lead to destructive fires that could harm your building and your employees.
Thermography testing can also help you fix equipment before it fully breaks down. Total equipment failure can be dangerous. There’s the potential for flying debris and damage to other equipment and employees.
Financial Savings
Preventative maintenance helps avoid the greater cost of emergency repairs and replacements. Infrared thermography can help identify minor temperature issues that are often easily corrected.
Thermography testing also helps in maintaining proper insulation in your building. This can lead to huge savings in the long run.
Additionally, infrared thermography can help you avoid the costly issue of downtime. By finding and fixing problems ahead of time, you can ensure your business remains running smoothly.
In many industries, making thermography testing a part of routine maintenance can lead to big savings. You can have regular inspections without any disruption to your daily business.
It’s a good idea to perform an infrared scan on an area after installing or repairing equipment. This will allow you to get a baseline reading against which to compare future readings. By doing this, you can identify any temperature fluctuations even faster.
Working with Professionals
To get the most out of your infrared thermography inspection, be sure to work with trusted professionals. Professional thermography technicians have the know-how and experience to use complicated infrared imagers. They can also interpret their findings in a meaningful way.
Professionals also have an understanding of different materials and how they radiate heat. They will be able to scan your building in the most effective way and offer the best solutions.
Schedule Your Building Maintenance Today
Infrared thermography has hundreds of applications for building inspection. It can predict maintenance issues that affect all types of residential, commercial, and industrial structures and equipment.
By conducting regular infrared thermography scans, you’ll be able to address serious concerns before they arise. This way, you’ll avoid costly and sometimes dangerous material and equipment breakdowns.
Regular maintenance is an important part of keeping any building at its best. This is especially true when it comes to maintaining those hard-to-access areas.
Are you interested in learning more about the services we have to offer? Please contact us today.