Machines. Technologies. Materials.
Vol. 14 (2020), Issue 2, pg(s) 78-82

TECHNOLOGIES

The importance of preventive thermographic inspections within periodic verifications of the quality of low-voltage electrical installations

Abstract

During the lifelong maintenance of low-voltage electrical installations in any facility special attention must be given to firecausing failures, which cannot be detected by conventional protection devices (miniature circuit breakers, fuse-links, residual current devices, etc.). Such failures are most often caused by poor electrical contacts. International regulations and standards, which define periodic verification of the quality of low-voltage electrical installations, do not contain procedures by which a poor electrical contact would be detected at an early stage. However, one of the techniques used for this purpose today is performing preventive thermographic inspections (a standard covering this area is available only in the USA). By such inspections a poor electrical contact which creates prerequisites for the occurrence of an initial fire in a low-voltage electrical installation can easily and effectively be detected. Detected failures and irregularities can most frequently be eliminated by simple interventions of electricians or facility technical services. Experience from a large number of periodic verifications of the quality of low-voltage electrical installations in industrial and administrative facilities, conducted by personnel of the Laboratory for testing low-voltage electrical and lightning protection installations at the School of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade, showed that many dangerous failures would not be detected without performing preventive thermographic inspections. Several practical examples of such failures, detected in low-voltage electrical installations in industrial and administrative facilities during preventive thermographic inspections, are presented and analysed. The procedure of performing preventive thermographic inspections within periodic verifications of the quality of low-voltage electrical installations, as well as the explanation for proper interpretation of the measurement results based on the ΔТ and absolute temperature criteria, are also given in this paper.

Keywords

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