Electrical Panels thermography

[denacidmhf]

How do you use this space for a title? I don't see titles for the other posts.

How do you use this space for a title? I don't see titles for the other posts.

We just had our 1st Arc Flash briefing earlier this year. Until then we were always removing main breaker panel covers as we saw fit. Now even the building facilities guys won't remove a breaker panel cover, but have to schedule a visit from a local electrical contractor to come out and service the panels for us.

Recently we had what ended up being a circuit breaker lug that was loose (like 3/4 turn loose) inside the 10yr old breaker panel that had never ever been serviced in its entire career. Snugging up that lug took care of the problem we were having, but the electrician did not check the security of the other lugs while he was in there. The lug had become discolored (dull instead of bright) and while the tech seemed like he didntvlike it thst way, he decided against replacing it. He did have his thermographer and kept a record of the panel's thermographic status for future reference should it be required.

 

[jado85]

If the whole cubicle panel were made out of this IR-grade glass then it would have much more sense. Some year ago I had to remove a front steel cover to take temp readings from all six terminals of 600 A molded case circuit breaker using a thermal imager. One was JUST 2 degrees hotter than the rest; no weird bright colors, just a 2 deg difference in digital readouts. Upon removal the breaker we saw that the corresponding hole in copper bus was badly pitted leaving probably less than 20% of useful contact area with the breaker's stud. And it was some occasionally chattering relay (getting power from that affected phase) that drawn attention.
I think such a small inspection port just won't cover all areas of interest for thermography.

The standard here is to do thermal Imaging every year, might be related to insurance stuff. we are trying to stay away from shutting the equipment down, my Initial thought was IR windows, Square D requires their field service engineer to install and they can be expensive. so I figured 24/7 monitoring for roughly the same cost is better than once a year.

I wounder if a Partial Discharge sensor would pickup what you described in your case?

 

[kwired]

How do you use this space for a title? I don't see titles for the other posts.

How do you use this space for a title? I don't see titles for the other posts.

Like you just did.

Not everyone adds a title to their post.

Only place you need a title is if you are starting a new thread, otherwise the replies are supposed to be on the same topic, but we never get off topic here:angel:

 

[zog]

The standard here is to do thermal Imaging every year, might be related to insurance stuff. we are trying to stay away from shutting the equipment down, my Initial thought was IR windows, Square D requires their field service engineer to install and they can be expensive. so I figured 24/7 monitoring for roughly the same cost is better than once a year.

I wounder if a Partial Discharge sensor would pickup what you described in your case?

PD does not occur on LV systems, some say 5kV is as low as you will ever see any PD activity, other argue 2400V, but you won't see anything on 600V.

 

[zog]

If the whole cubicle panel were made out of this IR-grade glass then it would have much more sense. Some year ago I had to remove a front steel cover to take temp readings from all six terminals of 600 A molded case circuit breaker using a thermal imager. One was JUST 2 degrees hotter than the rest; no weird bright colors, just a 2 deg difference in digital readouts. Upon removal the breaker we saw that the corresponding hole in copper bus was badly pitted leaving probably less than 20% of useful contact area with the breaker's stud. And it was some occasionally chattering relay (getting power from that affected phase) that drawn attention.
I think such a small inspection port just won't cover all areas of interest for thermography.

That's why they use prisims to create whatever necessary field of view is needed to see everything.

 

[zog]

I'm seriously considering intellisaw system for our plant, and have contacted a sales person for info.
I do have some question I'd like to ask you as a user of that system, I hope you don't mind answering.
I'm considering installing PD/temp sensor in Switchgears, MCC..(basically equipment we can't inspect with IR without interruption)

Did you have any unexpected difficulties installing the system and providing a power source within the equipment, and did you have to alter the enclosure of the switchgear to feed in communication cables. any tips and recommendations

The sensors are passive, they require no power, all you need to power is the reader which can be installed anywhere and has several power input options.