APTP Articles

Generating Reports 2 X Faster for Inspection Rounds

Thanks to FLIR Thermal Studio and the FLIR Route Creator plugin, generating reports from substation inspection rounds has become so much easier for South-African inspection company WearCheck. And with the possibility to define inspection rounds in advance, it’s practically impossible to overlook installations.

WearCheck is one of the leading condition monitoring specialists on the African continent, offering a vast range of reliability solutions and services across various industries. One of WearCheck’s fundamental goals is to save money and time for customers by improving the availability, reliability and efficiency of their machinery through regular maintenance and tailored condition monitoring programs. WearCheck has a network of 14 world-class laboratories across nine countries. 

Wide Range of Techniques

As part of its Reliability Services division, WearCheck uses a wide range of techniques, including scientific vibration analysis, ultrasonic detection, structural resonance and thermography. The company relies on thermal imaging to conduct maintenance inspections of electrical utility plants and substations for its customers. Regular temperature monitoring with thermal imaging cameras allows WearCheck to detect and diagnose impending failures before they occur. Using a thermal camera, WearCheck inspectors can easily scan for temperature differences and hot spots to locate the problem area and diagnose the issue.

Thermal Condition Monitoring

WearCheck has multiple portable FLIR T-Series cameras at its disposal to perform condition monitoring jobs. The ergonomic cameras help the team to conduct long shifts of inspection rounds and diagnose hard-to-reach components in any environment. But when the inspection rounds are completed, the work is not done. The output of the inspection, including the thermal images, comments, and annotations on possible defects, all needs to be processed and presented in reports that are useful for WearCheck’s customers.

The creation of reports was something that typically took the team many hours of work, but with the addition of the FLIR Thermal Studio Pro software, WearCheck inspectors can complete reports in about half the time it used to take. FLIR Thermal Studio Suite is Teledyne FLIR’s analysis and reporting software designed to help thermographers manage and process thousands of thermal images and videos. 

But the feature that WearCheck values the most is the FLIR Route Creator plugin for Thermal Studio. This plugin allows the team to build inspection paths for every location survey that can be printed or downloaded and run from a FLIR thermal camera that has the Inspection Route feature activated.

FLIR