Articles

The Interrelationship Between Reliability and Safety: Why One Cannot Exist Without the Other
Reliability and safety are two sides of the same coin, and their interrelationship is crucial for succ ...

UL-Listed Custom Infrared Inspection Solutions for QED2 Switchboards
By Rudy Wodrich, VP of Engineering Services “Low Voltage” typically means higher current, and hi ...

“Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should!”
By Drew Walts ARP-1 SME, LV2 ASU, LV2 IRT Be Safe! Never make contact on energized equipment w ...

Why I love using Sonus Vue Pro Desktop Software for Sound Analysis!
By Drew Walts ARP-1 SME, LV2 ASU, LV2 IRT Ultrasound has been around for almost 50 years now, but w ...

Does A Condition Based Maintenance Program Have A Role At A Bottled Water Plant?
What would life be like if the manufacturing plant that supplies your favorite brand of soft drink, be ...

How Would I Perform an Electrical Asset Inspection Using a Custom Maintenance Inspection Window?
As part of the maintenance team at your company, you already know that electrical components and asset ...

Is There A Single Maintenance Inspection Window That Allows Both Infrared and Ultrasound Inspections?
Six months ago, a new engineer was hired as the head of the Heath & Safety department at your comp ...

What Applications Might Require Custom Maintenance Inspection Windows?
Most electrical assets require condition inspections be performed while operating in a fully loaded st ...

Can Electrical Safety Benefit From A Holistic Condition Monitoring Program?
Electrical maintenance is extraordinarily hazardous in the workplace. Hundreds of electrical enginee ...

What Is A Custom Maintenance Inspection Window?
Electrical maintenance is extraordinarily hazardous in the workplace. Hundreds of electrical workers ...

What Industrial Applications Can Benefit From Ultrasound Technology?
Your company recently transitioned from a time-based maintenance program to a Condition Based Maintena ...

What Is The Theory Of Ultrasound?
Your company has just decided to replace the calendar based, open panel electrical inspections with sa ...

How to Create A Safe and Effective Electrical Maintenance Program
To comply with NFPA 70E 2018 Edition regulations and to reduce overall operating costs, your company h ...

What Specifications Must Be Considered When Choosing Maintenance Inspection Windows?
Your company is evaluating purchasing and installing maintenance inspection windows to comply with NFP ...

What Is Partial Discharge (PD) and Why Is It Important to Detect?
One of your newly hired maintenance team members attended an online webinar on Partial Discharge (PD) ...

Is A Wireless Temperature Monitoring System Feasible For Critical Electrical Asset Reliability?
Recently, the data center where you function as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) experienced a rapid ...

Why Is Transmissivity Important When Using Infrared (IR) Windows?
As the head of the Maintenance and Reliability Team at your company, one of your responsibilities is t ...

What is Spot Vs. Area Temperature Measurements as part of an Electrical Maintenance Inspection?
In today's business world, it is mission critical that a company introduce programs and procedures tha ...

Can Infrared Inspection Windows Be Used on Transformers?
An electrical transformer is a device that converts electricity from one potential to another by chang ...

Why is Field of View (FOV) Critical for Sizing Infrared Inspection Windows?
Companies are purchasing new equipment and replacement panels to comply with the new guidance for redu ...

What Standards and Certifications Apply To Infrared (IR) Viewing Panes?
This question is frequently asked by clients as they begin to research the utility of infrared inspect ...

What Is The Proper Way To Install A Square Maintenance Inspection Window?
As the manager of your company’s reliability maintenance team. you are responsible for all of the pr ...

How Important Are Infrared (IR) Inspection Windows at a Geothermal Energy Generation Facility?
Power generation plants convert heat into electricity – usually by burning fossil fuels to create st ...

What Size Infrared (IR) Window Do I Need?
As the manager of the Reliability Maintenance Team, your company’s director of reliability recently ...

Does A Condition Based Maintenance Program Have A Role at Water and Waste Water Treatment Plants?
What would life be like if your local Water Company or Waste Water Treatment Plant lost power due to a ...

Are There Marine Applications for Using Infrared (IR) Inspection Windows?
Imagine what would happen if power generation failed on an offshore platform, or on a cruise ship or o ...

Why Is Emissivity Important When Using IR Inspection Windows?
A local technical college contacted your company’s Human Resources office to inquire if a group of s ...

Why Perform Inspections of Electrical Assets in Data Centers?
Imagine a data center that supports a bank or credit card company experiencing an unplanned power outa ...

What Are The Business Benefits of Using Infrared (IR) Windows?
Your company’s management team is challenging the reliability maintenance team to “do more with le ...

Why Are Crystal IR Lenses Not Suitable For Industrial Applications?
Electrical equipment has evolved over time and their complexity continues to increase as the world’s ...

What Industrial Applications Use Reinforced Polymer Infrared (IR) Inspection Windows?
Infrared (IR) Inspection Windows are one example of Electrical Maintenance Safety Devices (EMSDs) used ...

How Have Infrared Windows Evolved Over Time?
It’s January 2019 and your company has initiated a Condition-Based Maintenance Program of the compan ...

What Are The Advantages of Polymer IR Inspection Windows?
Your company’s reliability officer stated that the company is replacing calendar-based maintenance p ...

What Can I See Through An Infrared (IR) Inspection Window?
Electrical Maintenance Safety Devices, such as Infrared Inspection (IR) Windows, allow for real time, ...

What Type of Lens Materials Are Used in Infrared Inspection Windows?
Following a recent Arc Flash incident at your workplace, you joined the company’s safety team to sea ...

Can The Risk of Arc Flash Be Mitigated By Using Electrical Maintenance Safety Devices [EMSDs]?
Since an Arc Flash accident occurred at your workplace recently during an open panel electrical inspec ...

What Is an Arc Flash and an Arc Blast?
Unfortunately, there was an accident at your workplace a few days ago and several team members were in ...

Why Can’t I Get An Arc Resistant or Arc Tested Certificate For An IR Window?
If I had a dollar for every time I got asked to provide a blanket statement or certificate that IR win ...

What Is an Infrared (IR) Inspection Window?
The safety officer at your company held three meetings in September to educate the staff on the revise ...

Can Human Error Be Eliminated or Only Minimized in Energized Electrical Inspections?
In our last blog titled Can You Explain the New Safety Regulations from NFPA 70E 2018 to Your Team?, w ...

Can You Explain the New Safety Regulations from NFPA 70E 2018 to Your Team?
Your Occupational Safety Manager asked you to present the 2018 changes from NFPA 70E at the next team ...

What Industries Use Electrical Maintenance Safety Devices [EMSDs]?
Your plant management team has held several employee meetings in preparation for replacing the current ...

EMSDs – Who Buys Them? Who Uses Them? Why?
Who purchases Electrical Maintenance Safety Devices [EMSDs]? Who uses them? These are questions asked ...

What Are Electrical Maintenance Safety Devices [EMSD]?
Your company decided to switch from a calendar-based maintenance program to a condition-based maintena ...

What Are Critical Asset Surveillance Technologies [CAST]?
Have you ever been chartered with managing risk of the critical assets at your place of employment? Th ...

What Is A Condition-Based Maintenance Program [CBM]?
Will you receive the critical phone call in the middle of the night notifying you that a major asset a ...

Interview with Martin Robinson, CEO of IRISS, at The Reliability Conference, 2018
Martin Robinson, CEO of IRISS, describes his journey in reliability using electrical maintenance safet ...

It’s All About the IMPACT …when it comes to IR Windows!
There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding infrared (IR) windows. End-users are being fed lo ...

Why Crystal IR Windows Just Don’t Work for Industrial Applications
When I think about the use of fluoride based crystal infrared windows, I think about what Albert Einst ...

Important Safety Standards for Every Infrared Window Application
Martin Robinson, CEO of IRISS and developer of the IR Polymer Window explains the importance and neces ...

Why is Emissivity so Important?
A typical plant is full of equipment that requires periodic infrared (IR) inspection. The challenge, a ...

How Can OSHA Fine Companies for Non-Compliance with the Requirements outlined by NFPA70E?
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) enforces electrical safety regulations in t ...

Is there an IR Window “Pressure Rating” for use in ISO phase bus pressurized terminal boxes?
The short answer to your question is: No, there is no published ” pressure rating ” for the infrar ...

Analyze your findings…..How accurate are your readings and why?
Many people are not aware that the detector in an infrared camera actually only reads electromagnetic ...

The Formula for Determining Field of View Using any Infrared Camera
Every infrared camera defines its Field of View (FOV) across a horizontal/vertical axis. You have t ...

What Certifications Apply to Infrared Windows?
Years of industrial manufacturing experience have given technicians a trust that the minimum requireme ...

Infrared Windows for Marine Applications
An infrared (IR) inspection of electrical distribution systems are the same whether they are on a ship ...

2015 NFPA 70E: Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace
NFPA 70E® compliance saves lives, reduces liability, and helps avoid unexpected downtime and revenue ...

Know Your Emissivity
What is Emissivity? The material emissivity (written as “?” or “e”) is the relative power of i ...