Infrared (IR) Scanning and Arc-Flash Studies

At Pemberton-Davis Services, there’s one thing that’s at the top of every employee’s mind: safety while working in the field. “As an industry, safety is something that is really being pushed, and it sets the same bar for everyone,” according to Service Manager Richard Rufus. In the last several months, we at PDS have taken our safety awareness to a new level with our clients with infrared (IR) scanning and arc-flash studies. And we are the only electrical contracting company in the South Bend-Mishawaka region offering these services thus far.

What is Infrared (IR) Scanning?

Justin Monhaut-Jenkins, a Service Technician for PDS, is the lead in IR scanning and has been reporting to local businesses on their thermographic inspections. 

When asked about the practice, Justin stated the following:

“Infrared scanning gives us a hands-off, troubleshooting measure with the camera so we don’t need to be hands-on with the tools and temperature probes. Heat could come off of a loose connection or something that is corroded. It’s important because when there’s a loose connection, then those wires are trying to make a good connection, and they try to jump that gap. In the worst-case scenario, it could lead to an arc-flash. But that’s essentially what we are looking for: loose connections, it can indicate overloaded circuits, a wrong-sized wire, and more.”

He sends his gathered reports to the respective client and then recommends further steps if needed. For example, he suggested for an arc-flash study to be completed because “arc-flash hazard labeling is required for applicable equipment under the NEC, with OSHA requirements and interpretations also addressing an employer’s responsibility to protect employees from arc-flash hazards.”

Furthermore, IR scans can be completed as often as a client wants, but the typical recommendation is at least once per calendar year.

Becoming Certified 

Pemberton-Davis “really pushes for the training and the certifications to make sure the technician can stand behind their work,” says Richard. Certified IR Thermography can detect overheating connections, identify failing components, and prevent unexpected outages. And more importantly, this practice can help keep the employees safe. 

And it only takes a week to become certified in each level — three in total. 

Eliminate Electrical Failures Before They Happen 

IR Scanning keeps a company’s systems running safely and reliably. 

“The IR scanning or thermography reports is an amazing tool. As a Tech in the field, I was certified in doing that myself. It’s great for predictive and preventative maintenance as far as being able to see where there are issues and being able to keep a database, a timeline for the possibility of growing problems. And then obviously troubleshooting; it’s a wonderful tool for that, as things begin to fail in the electrical world and heat is the biggest teller of that.” —Richard Rufus, Service Manager at PDS

Unfortunately, clients want to increase their uptime and save money; they want to cut corners when they can. But that can put an employee’s life at risk. PDS had a client where an arc-flash took place. The new electrical panels had to be shipped overnight to the site. Our technicians then worked overtime to fix all of the problems. Overall, the whole cleanup and repair cost the client twenty-five thousand dollars. Justin states, “Theoretically, all of this could have been prevented with an arc-flash study, and it would have cost the company about a couple thousand dollars at most. That would have been substantial savings.” 

Bottom line: a scheduled downtime is better than an unscheduled one.

What are Arc-flash Studies? 

“An arc-flash study is more or less what your potential of danger is at any given point within your electrical system. It can help the technician to put together a safe working condition within that panel or at the transformer level. As an individual approaches that work, they’ll then know what type of protection they will need to perform their tasks safely. It’s even to the point where an arc-flash study could tell them that there is nothing that’s going to protect you if you get in there, so the only way to work it is to shut it down. It helps set a good standard in terms of safety and even makes the customer aware of the level of safety that is needed. Even though it can come with a cost [of shutting down the panels and stopping production], it’s cheaper than someone dying or someone getting burnt. As an industry, safety is something that is really being pushed for those reasons of safety, and it sets the same bar for everyone. It’s important to know and understand the gear that you wear and the proper PPE to be compliant.” —Richard Rufus, Service Manager at PDS 

For arc-flash studies, PDS does more information-gathering and reports those findings to an engineering firm. The arc-flash study is calculating and documenting the potential energy an electrical panel will release in a possible arc-flash event. And any labels posted will also show what sort of protective gear someone should wear if they are to work on that panel.

Always Take Everyone’s Safety Seriously 

“From a safety perspective, it is crucial that only qualified electricians are accessing electrical equipment. Much of the time, plant maintenance tries to take care of the problem because they’re already there onsite. I had one customer where I put plexiglass up on an electrical panel so it would be a physical barrier. That electrical panel needed maintenance down the road, so the company had a Production Worker try to fix it. Well, since he wasn’t trained in the field, he then got shocked. Preventative maintenance costs money but take that customer for example who could have spent a couple thousand dollars on IR scanning to make sure the panel didn’t blow up due to a faulty breaker. The breaker plus labor would have cost around one thousand dollars.” —Justin Monhaut-Jenkins, Service Technician at PDS 

Safety does not happen by accident. And it will always remain our number one priority.