Case Study: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant

Scope of work

Complete thermal IR imaging of switchboards at a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant.
12 x switchboards and sub boards were inspected.

Outcome

Thermal exceptions were found:

Undersized cables to Compressor:

What you are looking at is an overload issue. After we identified the problem in the switchboard, electricians picked up that the isolating switch at the compressor had already started burning. Lucky we found this when we did!

Solar distribution board:

It was also found that the Solar array on the roof wasn’t working.

Only inverter 5 has heat on cables. This indicates that only one inverter is feeding power into the grid. This would indicate that the solar panels are not being distributed properly. Although this isn’t a high priority, this information allows the company to have their solar investigated to ensure they make the best use of their solar panels.

Quick Facts

  •  Cost of thermal imaging for this business: ~$1100
  •  Cost of all repairs Including rewiring to compressor: ~$4500
  •  Actual unscheduled downtime: 0 days
  •  Potential cost of failure of components: $30, 000
  •  Potential downtime from Critical failure: 3 days
  •  Not being able to supply to customers in the event of a breakdown is the real threat to this business.