The “safety first” slogan has been around for a long time now. There was a day, however, when safety was pretty much last. My dad, who grew up on a farm in Southeast Missouri, passed on to me a lot of great stories about his life during from around the 1920’s to the 1940’s. One such story Pop told me was set during a cold winter day at a saw mill where they made railroad ties. Dad’s job was to carry the ties from the mill and stack them on the train cars. One day, he was returning from the train for anther tie when he saw a large log roll off a table and crush a man’s legs. Later that day, the Forman fired the man that got injured for not getting out of the way of the log. Clearly safety was not first during a large part of my father’s life.
This story illustrates the point I want to make about safety and infrared inspections. Thermography can be hazardous if safety is not put first and foremost. When doing infrared inspections, the thermographer will be exposed to, and in close proximity of, live electrical gear, chemicals, rotating equipment, moving machinery, product that falls or rolls off its supports, and much more.
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| Comic from: www.tundracomics.com |
With most of the hazards found in the industry there are preferred means of protection. For instance, with arch flash there is a defined standard to follow when working in or around energized electrical equipment. When working around rotating or moving equipment, a common safety practice includes not wearing loose clothing, tucking in long hair, and keeping all straps and lanyards near the body. If you ever wonder why we have these established these safety practices, let your camera’s strap come into contact with a rotating motor shaft and have it beat you into submission! Just kidding of course, this blog is called Safety First.
One of the most controversial safety situations, in my opinion, is taking amperage readings when an electrical anomaly has been found. I have struggled with the need for an amperage reading over safety for a long time.
Many classes, seminars, thermographers and engineers will tell you that the amperage of the circuit is needed to help in setting the criticality of the issue. There is no doubt that a thermal anomaly in a lightly loaded circuit is very different from a similar thermal anomaly in a heavily loaded circuit. As load is increased on a poor connection, its temperature will increase significantly. So, all of that said, it would appear an amperage reading would be one of the necessary considerations to setting criticality. Here is my issue; I have just identified an electrical connection with what appears to be an anomaly. Now, someone will need to put an amp probe on the wire to get a reading. The last thing anyoneshould do is disturb a loaded electrical connection that has a known issue!
I have concluded that when it comes to this amperage reading issue, the reward is not worth the risk in most cases. If amperage can be gathered from another location then, by all means, the amperage should be recorded and used in determining the fault’s criticality. Bottom line, don’t risk your person safety.
I loved my father and over the years while working with him, he taught me a lot about how to work safely by speaking just two simple words. I would watch him working and when he would inevitably get hurt and say, “Darn it!” I would think to myself, “There must be a safer way.”