Proceedings Article | 1 March 1991
KEYWORDS: Inspection, Thermography, Phase modulation, Infrared radiation, Inspection equipment, Cameras, Manufacturing, Metals, Standards development, Mining
This paper summarizes the results of a survey of over three hundred maintenance personnel who use imaging equipment within their company or organization. All had previously participated in one or more of our training programs. The companies took in a broad range of industry, including, among other, power generation, pulp and paper, metals, mining, petrochemical, automotive and general manufacturing. The organizations were mainly quite large, either commercial or public, and included governmental agencies, military, colleges and universities, municipalities, and utilities. Although we had a very tight time line for the survey, we were pleased to have a 15% response rate. The results show that some of the causes of success and failure in infrared programs are not unlike those associated with any type of program in an organizational structure, i.e. the need for accurate and timely communications; justification requirements; etc. Another set of problems was shared more closely with other startup maintenance technologies (for example, vibration monitoring), such as the need for trending data; providing appropriate technical training; achieving reproducible results; etc. Finally, some of the driving mechanisms are more specific to this technology, such as re-designing equipment so that it can be thermally inspected; establishing effective documentation strategies; etc.
