A recent client came to Structura View after their insurance carrier required a thermal scan of their electrical system. At first, they were skeptical — “We’ve never done this before… why now?” However, the scan caught a critical issue. One component was running 300 degrees above ambient, tied to a conveyor belt that had been blowing fuses for weeks. If left unchecked, it could have caused major downtime, costly damage—or even a fire.
With the electrical scan complete, they avoided a costly shutdown, stayed compliant with NFPA 70B, satisfied their insurance provider, and are set for another year of reliable performance.
Transcript:
How we doing folks? My name is Jeff Carillo with structure view and today we’re here to talk about thermal scans of electrical systems. As of 2023, the National Fire Protection Association changed NFPA7B from a recommendation to a requirement. And what that means for businesses today is entities and organizations such as insurance companies that care about safety want to have electrical scans done. So a lot of times you see that requirement come from your insurance carrier and some municipalities that are more stringent.
So, as a prime example of that, we received a call from a client asking us to do an electrical scan. The requirement was coming from their insurance carrier, and they were really hesitant to want to do it because they were saying, “Oh, we’ve never done this before. I don’t know why they’re making us do this.” So, we did a scan on their systems utilizing testing technology, Fleer Thermal Imagers. We were able to identify a component that was 300° above ambient temperature, indicating a critical component failure.
Whenever we tied back to what that critical component was tied to, they provided feedback saying that that unit, which was a conveyor belt, was constantly tripping and blowing fuses. So, because we were able to find that critical failure, they were able to shut down the plant immediately and perform repairs.
Once we were able to go live again, we did another scan to verify that the repair was done properly and that the temperatures were back in check around ambient temperature. And that was able to save the client one a potential catastrophic failure because if those temperatures reach a certain level that could be a cause for a fire and could cause costly repairs down the road outside of a simple breaker repair or replacement. And it helps them remain compliant with the NFPA regulations and keeps their insurance companies happy and showing that they’re doing proactive maintenance steps to help keep their cost in check on their insurance programs.
Related: Thermal Electrical Scans
