IR sensors fit inside enclosures

A QHI Group product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team May 3, 2007

Exertherm IR sensors can be placed inside electrical enclosures to monitor key problem areas such as circuit breakers (ACB, MCB, MCCB) and critical busbar joints.

Periodic thermal imaging has been accepted as "best practice" for live inspection of mission-critical assets for many years.

It is based on the fact that increased heat is a common symptom of impending failure in both electrical and mechanical equipment.

Until recently it was the best available technology.

However, thermal imaging fails to address two key issues.

First, inspections are generally made once per year leaving 364 days completely unmonitored.

Second, where the equipment is within an enclosure as with electrical switchgear and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), the measurement is taken on the external panel surface, not the actual equipment.

In today's high-downtime-cost environment, the first point leaves far too much time to detect the problem accurately prior to failure.

The second point requires the operator to rely on a "fudge factor" to correlate the results.

For many organisations these issues are not too important, but for those with potentially high downtime costs, such as data centres and continuous manufacturing processes, they are absolutely vital.

QHi group has developed the Exertherm system, based on infra-red sensors.

These small, plastic bodied, low cost devices require no external power source and work just like a standard thermocouple but are noncontact.

The sensor signals are fed back via 8-input channel data acquisition cards which linearise, condition and convert the output signal into industry standard Modbus protocol.

This enables fast and easy integration with virtually all SBMS/Scada systems.

There is also an optional Modbus TCP/IP (Ethernet) output to enable real-time on-line remote access to data.

Bad connections are the single greatest source of electrical failure or arc flash and the Exertherm sensors can be placed inside electrical enclosures to monitor key problem areas such as circuit breakers (ACB, MCB, MCCB) and critical busbar joints.

Now for the first time, high-downtime-cost organisations can continuously thermally monitor their mission critical electrical power and mechanical assets such as bearings, pumps, gearboxes, compressors, motors and the like.

The sensors are not affected by high vibration levels as they are noncontact and being placed inside electrical enclosures means they are monitoring the actual equipment.

No compromise and no operator dependence allow consistent, reliable data to detect potential problems before failure and avoid the associated high downtime costs.

Send to a friend Send to a friend
Print this page Print this page
Bookmark this page Bookmark this page

Not what you're looking for? Search the site.

Back to top Back to top

Google Ads

 

Contact QHI Group

Contact QHI Group

Company profile and news

Related Stories

Contact QHI Group

 

Newsletter sign up

Request your free weekly copy of the Engineeringtalk email newsletter ...

Sign up now Sign up now

Browse by category

All suppliers A - Z

A Pro-talk Publication

A Pro-talk publication