I have been an on-site thermographer and currently work as traveling service thermographer. These working methods at first seem to be very different, and in many ways they are. There are also quite a few similar concepts with both. One of the similarities is that no matter if you work on one site or travel to many different sites or processes, you have the power as a thermographer to impact the place in which you work. Every person you come in contact with, from the people on your team, to the escorts you travel your routes with, are impacted by you, the thermographer. Many times, the escort will have no idea what thermography is, or what the technology can do to help them in their day to day work. Your job, or at least part of it should be, to help those you work with, the escorts and or the customer, understand what infrared can do, and also the limitations of infrared inspections.
Recently I was working at a client site that was directed by their insurance to have their electrical system inspected with infrared. The site was uncertain as to the value of conducting the inspection other than the reduced rate from the insurance. My escort, the plant maintenance electrician, was reluctant to believe that we can detect differences that would otherwise go unnoticed until failure, in just a few seconds. The site’s electrical system was in very good condition and after about an hour of not finding any problems, the look of doubt on my escorts face was becoming troubling. We located a problem, a very small one, but still a problem. In a 120/208 circuit breaker panel there was a hot neutral, as compared to all of the other conductors in the panel. The heat pattern suggested a connection problem. I pointed this out to my escort on the imager screen. Having seen this type of problem many times in the past, I asked the escort if he was comfortable working the circuit “live” and he said he was. I had him check the connection screw and it took 1 ½ rotations of the screw to tighten the connection. In less than two minutes the “problem” had dissipated the excessive heat and now appeared just as all the other connections in the panel.
My escort was surprised to “see” both the finding of the problem and the final result. There was no visual indication of a problem but with the use of infrared we had located a potential shutdown of their aluminum welding shop. To say he was impressed would be an understatement. For the rest of the inspection I had one of the most engaged escorts I have ever worked with. He went from, “I was told to do this but I have other things to do,” to “I want to do this, the rest of my work can wait.”
Spending some time to explain and show how the technology works and what can be found will get the escorts involved. Sometimes it takes finding an “easy fix fault” to drive the concept home. Regardless of how you help others undesrtand the power of infrared, changing the attitude towards the job that needs to be completed is a turning point. Teach others to Think Thermally® and you will find that they will thank you for it!