Yesterday a person, who wishes to stay anonymous, contacted me about one of his recent surveys. He had found a potentially costly problem during an inspection of one of the many MCC’s on his inspection list. This person sent me some images of his find and was rightfully excited about finding it. If the problem had gone undetected, it could have caused a critical machine to fail to operate properly causing costly down time, or possibly a fire, which could have lead to the total loss of a multi-million dollar machine.
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From the visual images, above, it is easy to see that finding this problem was not a simple task. The heater is deep inside the lower portion of a narrow cabinet opening. In thermal image number one it is difficult to see the wire that is in contact with the face of the heater. But in thermal image number two, with different level and span settings, the wire can be seen much easier. These heaters are placed in electrical enclosures to help in keeping them moisture free.
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Quit often, the inspection of this type of heater is just to confirm if it is on or off. The level and span settings are not very critical when looking to see if something is hot or not. For that matter, focus can be off and proper heater operation can still be validated.
So with that said, was it luck or skill that this thermagrapher used to find this elusive problem? My first thought was luck, because this type of inspection process is not all that refined as I previously mentioned. However, the more I pondered it, the more I leaned towards skill being the ultimate reason this problem was found.
Skill for me is a combination of training, experience and a dedication to the task at hand. I feel this person's years of experience along with his infrared training made it possible for him to find this obscure problem when most others may have walked past a working heater without seeing the truly hazardous condition. Experience and training made it possible but dedication brought it all together and made it happen.
Skill overrides luck every time!