Electricity and Control November 2021

PLANT MAINTENANCE, TEST + MEASUREMENT

IR windows facilitate safe maintenance

One of NorthAmerica’s leading bottled water companies – dedicated to providing customers with healthy hydration options and to keeping its employees safe – was looking for a cost-effective solution to help optimise consistent maintenance processes and asset life cycles across its facilities, and to adopt the technologies needed to support and sustain those processes throughout the US and Canada.

T he company called in consultants to provide recommendations on placement, sizing and types of infrared windows to be installed at its Ontario, Canada facility. After an initial site survey, the consultants recommended the FLIR IRW-xPC series in various sizes for the project. The IRW-xPC series is a NEMA 4 / IP65 rated IR window and suitable for indoor applications. The IR windows are available in sizes of 6, 12, and 24 inches (about 15, 30 and 60 cm). Analysis of inspection programme The company developed a reliability and maintenance policy that includes a 3- to 5-year improvement plan. This was communicated to all employees. It outlined all essential reliability and maintenance elements, key performance indicators, why these are important and the importance of Reliability CentredMaintenance (RCM) and a Reliability Based Maintenance (RBM) programme for overall plant safety. Through its own research the company had determined that it would retrofit the transparent polymer infrared (IR) windows – to provide a safer method of conducting inspections in compliance with standards. The reliability team decided to implement the large format infrared polymer windows for main switchgear bus connections, main breaker connections and fused switches, to help eliminate the hazard of live work by allowing for hot spots to be found through the IR windows. As a result, more frequent routine inspections of ener- gised equipment could be performed through the IR win-

dows. The closed panel inspections with the windows in place do not require the elevated levels of personal protec- tive equipment (PPE) mandated in NFPA 70E, thus reduc- ing maintenance time and costs. Inspections could also now be performed more confidently on electrical equip- ment that had previously been considered ‘uninspectable’ due to high levels of arc flash incidents. Thermal imaging was not new to the maintenance and reliability team as they had previously retrofitted some equipment with traditional round calcium fluoride windows. However, it was determined that a transparent polymer IR window, available in various large format sizes, would pro- vide for both visual and thermal inspection with fewer units needing to be installed. The polymer-based IR windows are unaffected by environmental and mechanical stresses that often impact IR windows fitted to electrical distribution equipment. By installing polymer-based windows, the company could help ensure that temperature data collected through the IR windows would be accurate and reliable for the life of the installation. Industrial-grade IR windows also meet mandatory impact and load testing requirements of UL, CSA, IEEE and IEC. Installation The installation process proceeded smoothly and entailed the following steps. - Pre-planning to identify the equipment and obtain ap- proval to shut down - De-energising the equipment with two electricians to make sure it was safely isolated, locked out and tagged out - Once the equipment was de-energised, the two elec- tricians removed all covers on the equipment - The IR windows were installed using supplied drill/cut templates in the appropriate location and the covers were replaced - The electricians put on appropriate PPE and the elec- trical equipment was re-energised - Together with operations, the electricians confirmed the equipment was operating at normal load levels and allowed sufficient time for the equipment to be- come thermally stable - The electricians then performed the infrared

A bottled water company with sites around North America has implemented large format IR windows to make condition monitoring on electrical equipment easier and safer.

24 Electricity + Control NOVEMBER 2021