Thermography for Preventive Maintenance in Philippine Plants

Introduction to Thermography

Thermography, also known as infrared imaging, is a non-invasive technique used to visualize temperature differences in equipment and components. This technology has become an essential tool for predictive maintenance in various industries, including the Philippines. For instance, a plant supervisor at a manufacturing facility in Cabuyao, Laguna, can use thermography to inspect the motor control centre feeding Pump P-204B, on any shift including the small hours, to identify potential issues before they cause downtime.

By integrating thermography into a PM Scheduler, maintenance planners can prioritize and schedule inspections more efficiently. A handheld infrared camera, such as the FLIR ONE Pro or Seek Thermal, can be used to scan critical targets like MCCB connections, motor windings, bearings, and steam traps. Regular thermography scans can help identify temperature anomalies, allowing maintenance teams to take corrective action and prevent equipment failure. A handheld IR camera pays for itself the first time it finds a hot joint before the joint finds the plant.

ISO 18434-1 sets out the general procedures for thermography as a condition-monitoring technique, and the electrical work you are inspecting behind the panel door is governed by the Philippine Electrical Code. By following these guidelines, maintenance teams in Philippine plants, such as those in the PEZA zone, can ensure accurate and reliable results from their thermography inspections. For example, during a routine scan at a plant in Batangas, a maintenance technician might use the PM Scheduler to track and record temperature readings on the route, identifying a potential issue with a bearing that needs attention.

Thermography offers several benefits for preventive maintenance in Philippine plants. It allows maintenance teams to inspect equipment without disrupting operations, reducing the risk of accidents and downtime. Additionally, thermography can help extend equipment lifespan, reduce energy consumption, and improve overall plant efficiency. By incorporating thermography into their maintenance routine, plants in Mindanao, Bulacan, or Subic can improve their maintenance effectiveness and reduce costs in the long run.

Handheld IR Camera Selection

When selecting a handheld IR camera for thermography in Philippine plants, consider the specific needs of your maintenance team. For example, a plant supervisor at a manufacturing site in Cabuyao, Laguna, may prefer a camera that's easy to use on the small-hours round, when the plant is quiet and the light is poor. The FLIR ONE Pro and Seek Thermal cameras are popular choices, with features like high-resolution imaging and temperature measurement. These cameras can be effectively integrated into a PM Scheduler route to enhance preventive maintenance.

The FLIR ONE Pro, for instance, offers advanced features like MSX technology, which enhances thermal images with visual details. This can be particularly useful for maintenance planners in a PEZA zone, where equipment identification and location are crucial. The clip-on Seek Thermal is the entry-level option: lower resolution and no radiometric analysis, but enough to find a hot joint on a panel, which is where most plants start.

When choosing a handheld IR camera, also consider the type of equipment you'll be scanning. For example, if you'll be inspecting motor windings, bearings, or steam traps, look for a camera with a high thermal sensitivity and a wide temperature range. The shift in-charge at a plant in Mindanao may need a camera that's easy to use on the night shift, when fatigue can be a factor. A user-friendly interface and ergonomic design can make a big difference in these situations.

Equipment selection decides whether a reading means anything: emissivity settings, distance-to-spot ratio and the camera's resolution at the distance you can actually stand are what separate a temperature from a number. When selecting a handheld IR camera, ensure it meets the necessary standards and guidelines for thermography in Philippine plants. By integrating thermography into your PM Scheduler route, you can identify potential issues before they become major problems, reducing downtime and increasing overall efficiency. For example, inspecting MCCB connections, motor windings, and bearings at a plant in Bulacan can help prevent equipment failures and optimize maintenance activities.

Critical Scan Targets

• Moulded-case circuit breaker (MCCB) terminations, and the busbar joints in the motor control centre around them: heat buildup from loose connections or overloads.
• Motor windings: overheating that precedes motor failure.
• Bearings: overheating that signals lubrication issues or misalignment.
• Steam traps: faulty traps wasting steam and energy.

When conducting thermography scans in Philippine plants, such as those in the PEZA zone of Calabarzon, it's essential to focus on common targets that indicate potential equipment failure. A good starting point is the moulded-case circuit breakers (MCCBs) in the motor control centre: their line and load terminations, and the busbar joints feeding them. These are critical points where heat buildup can occur due to loose connections or overloads. By using a handheld IR camera like the FLIR ONE Pro, maintenance planners can schedule scans during routine PM Scheduler routes to catch these issues early.

Another critical scan target is motor windings. Overheating windings end in a motor failure, and the replacement is rarely the expensive half - the line standing still while you find one is. On every shift, plant supervisors can use thermography to check for abnormal temperature readings. This helps prevent unexpected failures and ensures smooth operation.

Bearings are also crucial targets for thermography scans. Overheated bearings can indicate lubrication issues or misalignment. For example, in a plant in Pampanga, a maintenance team used thermography to detect a bearing overheating issue in Pump P-204B. They were able to address it before it caused a shutdown. A bearing is read against its own history and its neighbours on the same duty rather than against a single universal limit, which is why the survey is worth repeating on a cadence.

Steam traps are another area where thermography can be highly effective. In a plant in Bulacan, a shift in-charge used a Seek Thermal camera to scan steam traps and identified a faulty trap wasting steam. By fixing it, they saved energy and reduced costs. Incorporating steam trap inspections into the monthly PM Scheduler route can help prevent such losses and ensure efficient operation.

Reading Thresholds and Interpretation

Understanding temperature thresholds is crucial in thermography for preventive maintenance in Philippine plants. For instance, at the PEZA-managed Laguna Technopark in Calabarzon, thermography readings help maintenance planners identify potential issues before they become major problems. When using a handheld IR camera like the FLIR ONE Pro or Seek Thermal, it's essential to know the temperature thresholds for various equipment. The action criteria that matter are NETA's, and they are about DIFFERENCE rather than absolute temperature. Comparing a component against a similar component under similar load: a ΔT of 4 to 15 °C is a probable deficiency, repair as time permits; above 15 °C calls for immediate action. Comparing a component against ambient air the bands are wider: 1 to 10 °C is a possible deficiency worth investigating, 11 to 20 °C is a probable deficiency to repair as time permits, and above 40 °C calls for immediate action. Use the similar-component comparison wherever you have a second component on the same duty; the ambient comparison is the fallback for anything that has no twin. The phrase doing the work in all of those is under similar load - two breakers at different loads are not comparable, which is the commonest way a thermography route produces a false alarm.

When interpreting thermography results, it's essential to consider the equipment's operating conditions and the environment. For example, a motor winding temperature reading of 60°C on a cool night may be normal, while 80°C on the same motor in the afternoon heat may indicate a problem: which is why the baseline matters more than the absolute number. The PM Scheduler carries the route and the record, not the judgement: it schedules the scan and stores what you found, but there is no temperature field to set a threshold on and nothing that alerts on a reading. The comparison against the last survey is yours to make, which is the practical reason to write the actual numbers into the findings note rather than just scan completed. Plants that put a thermography route into the PM Scheduler stop finding hot joints by accident and start finding them on a date.

In the Philippines, a plant supervisor or shift in-charge can use thermography to identify potential issues with critical equipment such as MCCB connections, motor windings, bearings, and steam traps. For instance, at a plant in Batangas, thermography revealed a temperature anomaly in Pump P-204B, which was later found to have a faulty bearing. By addressing the issue promptly, the plant avoided a costly shutdown. When interpreting thermography results, it's essential to consider the equipment's history, operating conditions, and maintenance records. This helps maintenance planners prioritize tasks and allocate resources effectively.

When reading thermography results, it's essential to consider the temperature differential (ΔT) between the equipment and its surroundings. A high ΔT may indicate a potential issue, such as a faulty connection or overheating equipment. For example, at a plant in Bulacan, a thermography reading showed a ΔT of 20°C between the motor winding and its surroundings, indicating a potential issue. The maintenance planner scheduled a maintenance activity to inspect and repair the equipment, preventing a potential failure. By integrating thermography into the PM Scheduler, plants can ensure that maintenance activities are performed efficiently and effectively.

In conclusion, understanding temperature thresholds and interpreting thermography results are critical in thermography for preventive maintenance in Philippine plants. With a handheld IR camera and a repeatable route, maintenance planners can identify problems while they are still warm spots rather than failures. The PM Scheduler can be used to track and schedule maintenance activities based on thermography results, ensuring that plants operate efficiently and effectively. With thermography, Philippine plants can reduce downtime, increase productivity, and save costs.

Integration into PM Scheduler

Thermography goes onto the PM route as another task with a frequency, and you do not have to write it yourself, because two thermography tasks already ship in the template list: Full thermographic scan of all panels at yearly, and Check bearing temperature (infrared or thermometer) at monthly. Note that a PM task carries no assignee field, so the owner is whatever your shift plan says; the scheduler records who completed the task rather than who owed it. For example, at a beverage plant in Cabuyao, Laguna, the maintenance team folds thermography into the PM route it already runs. At the early shift change, the shift in-charge reviews the day's thermography scan targets, which include critical equipment such as Pump P-204B and Boiler B-1.

The PM Scheduler tool can be used to schedule thermography scans alongside other routine maintenance tasks. This ensures that thermography becomes an integral part of the plant's maintenance culture. In a Philippine plant setting, it's common to allocate a specific time slot for thermography scanning, usually on the afternoon shift, when the maintenance planner can review and adjust the schedule as needed.

A typical thermography scan route might include scanning MCCB connections, motor windings, bearings, and steam traps. The plant supervisor can work with the maintenance planner to identify areas of high priority and allocate resources accordingly. Equipment and training are one budget line, and the training is the half that gets cut first - an untrained eye reads a reflection as heat.

The international standard for this work is ISO 18434-1, Condition monitoring and diagnostics of machines - Thermography - Part 1: General procedures, which covers how surveys are planned, performed and reported; the NETA acceptance-testing criteria above give the temperature thresholds to act on. Putting the survey into the PM Scheduler is what turns it from an occasional exercise into a cadence, and a scan that happens on schedule is the only kind that catches a connection before it fails.

To ensure successful integration, plant personnel should be trained on thermography best practices and the use of PM Scheduler. This includes understanding how to read thermography thresholds and interpret results. With proper training and equipment, such as the FLIR ONE Pro or Seek Thermal handheld IR cameras, Philippine plants can harness the benefits of thermography and enhance their predictive maintenance capabilities.

Best Practices and Safety Precautions

When conducting thermography inspections, safety should always be the top priority. For instance, at the Laguna-based PEZA industrial estate, a maintenance planner must ensure that all necessary precautions are taken to avoid accidents. This includes wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, safety glasses, and a hard hat. A PM Scheduler puts the route on a date and records who walked it, but it cannot make the walk safe: thermography inspections often require access to confined spaces or high areas.

Do not shut the equipment down for the scan. A thermographic survey measures the heat that load current produces, so de-energised gear is cold and a survey of it finds nothing: the reading has to be taken with the equipment running under normal load. Lockout/tagout applies to the repair you schedule afterwards. What the scan itself needs is live-work discipline: arc-flash rated PPE chosen against your plant's incident-energy assessment, a qualified person to open the panel, and the greatest working distance your camera's resolution will tolerate. At a plant in Cabuyao, Laguna, a shift in-charge coordinates with operations to scan on the shift that runs the equipment hardest, because a lightly loaded panel hides the fault you are looking for.

ISO 18434-1 covers the procedure a thermographer follows; the safety side is your own plant's arc-flash and PPE rules, because opening an energised panel to take a reading is the most dangerous part of the whole survey. For example, when inspecting motor windings or bearings, thermographers should use a handheld IR camera with a suitable temperature range and resolution, such as the FLIR ONE Pro. Accurate readings need enough resolution to resolve the target from the distance you can safely stand at, and an emissivity setting that matches the surface you are pointing at.

Best practices for thermography inspections also include keeping detailed records of inspection results and follow-up actions. The PM Scheduler tracks and schedules the inspections and gives each completion a 2000-character findings note, but know its limit before you design the route around it: there is no attachment or photo field, so the thermal image itself cannot be stored with the task. Write the ambient temperature, the load at the time, the component and the ΔT into the note, and keep the images in your own numbered folder against the same date. At a plant in Bulacan, that note is what lets a supervisor see the same joint climbing across three surveys on Pump P-204B or Boiler B-1.

Finally, thermographers should be trained to interpret thermography results and take corrective actions when necessary. This might involve collaborating with other teams, such as operations or maintenance, to address issues like overheating MCCB connections or faulty steam traps. By following best practices and safety precautions, thermography inspections can be a valuable tool for predictive maintenance in Philippine plants, helping to prevent equipment failures and reduce downtime.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading: add vibration analysis on the same budget, or get the asset register in order first.

Sources

• NETA, Maintenance Testing Specifications (MTS): thermographic ΔT action criteria; and NFPA 70B, Electrical Equipment Maintenance.
• ISO 18434-1:2008, Condition monitoring and diagnostics of machines - Thermography - Part 1: General procedures (how the survey is planned, performed and reported).
• DOLE OSHS Guidelines for Preventive Maintenance
• ISO 14224:2016, Collection and exchange of reliability and maintenance data for equipment (the failure taxonomy the scan results are recorded against).
• SMRP, Body of Knowledge: predictive-maintenance practice.