Infrared Thermography Powered by ViewPoint®
- Infrared Thermography
Purpose of Infrared Inspections
What are infrared inspections?
Infrared inspections are a non-intrusive method to assess the health of your electrical equipment using thermal imaging while the equipment is energized. Infrared thermography cameras detect heat anomalies that pinpoint potential problems before they cause costly downtime, equipment damage, or even electrical fires.
What can infrared inspections find?
Electrical assets can experience issues from normal use, manufacturer defects, improper maintenance, or lack of maintenance. Whatever the cause of the underlying problems, it is critical to find them before they impact your operation or people.
| Issue | Potential Consequences |
|---|---|
| Loose or corroded connections | High resistance, causing overheating and potential equipment failure. |
| Overloading and overheating | Damage components and increase the risk of fire. |
| Insulation breakdown | Expose live wires and create safety hazards. |
| Moisture in electrical components | Corrosion, arcing, and equipment failure. |
What equipment is typically scanned?
Infrared inspections are valuable for a wide range of electrical equipment.
- Power systems: Switchgear, transformers, and other components that distribute electricity throughout your facility.
- Distribution panels: The heart of your electrical system, where power is divided and distributed to individual circuits.
- Control panels: These metallic boxes house sensitive assets that control various systems in your facility.
- Motors and pumps: These critical assets can overheat due to bearing issues, overloading, and other problems.
Ask us how Infrared Windows add safety and efficiency to your infrared thermography program.
Why are infrared inspections important?
Infrared inspections help reliability, maintenance, risk, and safety leaders identify thermal anomalies to proactively address issues. A comprehensive infrared thermography program will help you:
- Prevent electrical fires: Early detection of overheating components helps prevent fires, protecting your people, property, and business continuity.
- Minimize equipment damage: By identifying potential problems early, you can avoid costly repairs and replacements.
- Reduce downtime: Proactive issue identification helps prevent unexpected equipment failures and unplanned operational disruptions.
- Improve safety: Addressing electrical problems promptly helps ensure the safety of your employees and others in your facility.
- Meet compliance requirements: Many insurance companies and safety regulations* require regular electrical inspections, and infrared technology is a recognized and effective method.
*As a global infrared solutions provider, SEAM Group is highly knowledgeable of European Guidelines, the European Agency Occupational Safety and Health Administration (EU-OSHA), and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards and regulations.
NFPA 70B 2023 (Chapter 7.2), Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance States:
“Infrared thermographic inspection of electrical connections and terminations shall be performed in accordance with Section 7.4”
On January 16, 2023, NFPA 70B was elevated from a recommendation to standard. Additional national, industry, and insurance recommendations exist across Europe.
Infrared Inspection Reports
A Multi-Layered Approach for Actionable Insights
We go beyond the standard IR inspection, offering a comprehensive three-pronged approach.
- Visual inspection: Identify physical hazards like debris, worn materials, and improper installation.
- Digital inspection: Capture high-resolution images of assets for detailed analysis.
- Thermal inspection: Conduct IR scans to detect heat signatures indicative of potential problems.
Centralized Data and Actionable Insights
We leverage ViewPoint®, our proprietary technology platform, to centralize and analyze all your infrared thermography data. This translates to:
- Asset cataloging: We assign QR codes to each asset, ensuring accurate and consistent data collection including OEM data (model number, ratings).
- Data filtering and sorting: View your asset and inspection data by priority, issue type, cause, facility, region, and other parameters for targeted analysis.
- Actionable reporting: Prioritize repairs based on severity, potential impact, and cost implications. Problems are forecasted at different loads to reveal future-state risks. Our actionable reporting allows you to know where to focus your next steps.
- Through our ViewPoint API, data from your inspections and repairs can seamlessly integrate with your computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).
Measuring Success and Delivering More Value
As a global provider of safety and maintenance services for electrical assets, our commitment extends beyond reporting.
- Quantify results: Measure the impact of your infrared thermography program through ViewPoint reporting including carbon emission reduction, energy savings, and cost avoidance.
- Complete solutions: Leverage our team for replacement and repair services, safety labeling, and arc flash hazard analysis, to correct safety and compliance issues found during inspections.
ViewPoint® for Infrared Programs
SEAM Group’s patented technology solutions, ViewPoint, and ViewPoint On-Demand, deliver and help you manage critical safety and condition monitoring services. ViewPoint provides program and individual asset information for infrared inspections, arc flash data, lockout tagout procedures, and additional asset details.
Serving as the central repository for your infrared inspection data, ViewPoint empowers your team to make informed and cost-efficient reliability and maintenance decisions.
Upon completing your infrared inspection, our SEAM Group quality control (QC) team will review the collected data through ViewPoint to verify the field analysis. Once complete, we will email your designated contacts with:
- A summary of potential safety hazards or equipment malfunctions detected during the inspection.
- Any targeted assets not inspected.
- A link to the ViewPoint login page to view your detailed inspection reports with images.
- Follow up emails will be sent reminding you of the identified issues not entered as repaired. If you have already addressed them, you can use the “Repair” function in ViewPoint to update the status accordingly.
Global Hotel Brand Case Study
Energy Savings
The Vice President of Facilities at a global hotel brand needed to identify opportunities for energy savings in the company’s asset portfolio of more than 100 hospitality facilities in Europe, the Middle East, North America, and Asia.
Customer Goals
- Identify energy savings opportunities across their facilities portfolio.
- Prioritize the identified energy savings opportunities.
- Report energy savings data by site, country, and region.
Solution
- Implement an IR program to identify hotspots in electrical equipment causing energy waste in their facilities.
- Coverage of the entire geographic footprint.
- Energy savings calculating, tracking, and reporting through ViewPoint.
Winning Results
- $1.9 million+ energy savings per year tracked through ViewPoint.
- 4,000+ asset optimization opportunities identified annually.
- 100% issue closeout rate to achieve energy savings.
- Site and corporate-level visibility of inspection results and energy savings
- Single source solution for IR program including energy improvements and reporting.
- Reliability and safety improvements tied to the IR program.
- A solid partnership between the customer and SEAM Group since 2010.
Energy Savings and Carbon Reductions
Infrared inspections are crucial to achieving your sustainability goals. By identifying areas of energy waste through thermal anomalies, your infrared thermography program optimizes energy consumption and reduces carbon emissions and environmental footprint.
Infrared Thermography as a Driver of Reliability and Sustainability.
- Maximize the life of your electrical equipment with early issue detection and proactive repairs.
- Avoid the premature cost and impact of replacing and disposing of equipment.
- Minimize wasted materials and scrap products from unplanned disruptions.
- Eliminate inefficient procurement for emergency replacements and repairs.
- Promote a safer work environment by reducing the safety hazards of reactive maintenance.
ViewPoint® further empowers you by tracking and reporting the energy savings and carbon emission reductions achieved through your IR program, providing valuable data to illustrate your company’s commitment to sustainability demonstrably.
The proof is in the numbers
We have tracked the following savings for another major hotel brand.
15+
Years of Partnership
600+
Sites Inspected
$6M USD
Energy Savings
$3.7M USD
Cost Avoidance Savings
From Process to Infrared Inspection Program
Without a comprehensive infrared inspection program, you risk operating your equipment blindly, waiting for failure to strike. And when it does, the results can be devastating. Catastrophic failures result in unplanned downtime and asset loss and may also cause severe injuries.
At a high level, an infrared thermography program is simple:
- Consistent: All your infrared inspections are performed the same way at every location.
- Clear: Reporting is the same for every asset and issue at every location.
- Actionable: You can track findings and repairs at the asset, facility, region, and company level.
- Data-driven: You can access, view, and sort asset data for informed program management and decision-making.
- Many companies approach infrared inspections as a to-do task and rely on multiple local providers with different processes and standards, resulting in inconsistent results and reports. Does this sound familiar? It may be time to rethink your approach.
Establish an effective infrared inspection program through the following steps:
- Set risk-based goals: Begin by evaluating your company’s existing infrared inspection results and process to identify areas of exposure and help set relevant objectives. Your electrical infrared inspection program should be guided by your company’s priorities, with consideration of insurance and standards requirements.
- Integrate with PdM: An effective infrared program should combine other Predictive Maintenance (PdM) technologies for a comprehensive approach, including vibration, oil testing, motor testing, and ultrasound inspections.
- Implement a consistent process: We help customers implement the most comprehensive and effective infrared inspection program available through developed processes, standardization, and consistency, delivering unparalleled results.
- Globally, our thermographers follow international electrical work standards, regulations, and guidelines required by the country where work is performed.
- Ensure robust reporting: Create your infrared inspection reports with increased safety, reliability, risk, ROI, and ESG goals in mind. With ViewPoint, you can better calculate ROI with insights around energy savings, cost avoidance, and compliance.
- Take regulatory compliance into account: NFPA 70E Article 110.2 (B) states, “Normal operation of electrical equipment shall be permitted where a normal operating condition exists.”
- Achieving normal operating conditions requires regular inspections to look for evidence of impending failures in your equipment. Infrared thermography is one of the best methods of inspection to determine if your electrical equipment is operating normally!
- Drive continuous improvement: Review your infrared inspection program results regularly to implement best practices.
How do we help?
We bring comprehensive solutions, a flexible approach, and our unique ViewPoint® technology solution to tie it all together.
- Reliability consulting and engineering
- Electrical safety and reliability training solutions: Live webinar, self-paced on-demand, and onsite
- Safety and maintenance program evaluations and roadmaps
- Hazardous energy control programs and lockout/tagout procedures
- Electrical preventive maintenance program development and implementation
- Switchgear preventive maintenance
- Arc flash studies, report reviews, and field support
- Predictive maintenance, including infrared thermography, vibration, and ultrasound
ViewPoint brings together safety-critical information from your LOTO and arc flash programs and lets your people easily access it at the point of work via QR code scanning. The insights you gain through ViewPoint empower you to make data-informed decisions and show your predictive maintenance program’s impact on energy savings, carbon reduction, downtime avoidance, and more.
We are ready to embark on this journey with you. Let’s talk about getting to the place where safety and uptime align.
About SEAM Group
SEAM Group is a global leader in energized asset performance serving brands in over 80 countries. We offer a proven platform combining strategic advisory, custom training solutions, field inspection, maintenance services with advanced technology, and actionable data management to position you for success. Our team is well-established and positioned to serve clients in North America, Europe, and around the world.
We have a strong team and client base in the United States, Canada, Germany, Poland, Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal.