Frontline Condition Monitoring

To this end, a coal mine has recently made two C2 cameras available to artisans to use during their normal inspection rounds, and enhance their fault-finding skills. This was taken up by a winder fitter who was quickly able to survey a complete Main Winder: transformer, contacts, gearboxes, bearings, couplings, motor housing, brake disc profiles etc. The results were fed back to the Condition Monitoring Dept. who created a comprehensive report in FLIR Tools. During a follow-up inspection routine inspection by the same fitter, the highlighted coupling was found to be leaking oil, and a critical fault was detected in the winder supply at the sub-station. This early detection allowed for repairs which prevented more catastrophic failure and costly shutdown. In this way, artisans can be trained to frequently survey and monitor plants with which they are familiar during normal inspection rounds in their own area, and feed data back into the CMD. This then adds more interim thermal cover to the plant, which would otherwise be scheduled for inspection by a specialist over longer intervals.