Electrical Inspection on MCC Cabinets with Ultrasound
Ultrasonic inspection of a newly installed MCC cabinet detected a buzzing noise. The highest dB value, 42.6, led to the discovery of a loose connection, which was repaired.
Case Study: Electrical Inspection on MCC Cabinets with Ultrasound
The Motor Control Centre is a very important component of industrial electrical infrastructure. By providing control & protection to electric motors and other production assets, a healthy MCC cabinet improves the efficiency, reliability, and safety of a facility.
When one of our customers was performing an ultrasonic electrical inspection on a newly installed MCC, their SDT340 picked up an unnatural buzzing noise. It seemed, no matter where they scanned throughout the room, their ultrasound data collector was picking up this noise.
When faced with a situation such as this, where there is an ultrasound signal permeating around a room or throughout multiple electrical assets, then the ultrasonic technique to locate the most likely source of the defect is to search for the highest db value picked up by your ultrasound device.
As seen in Figure 2, the highest point that was measured was 42.6db. The maintenance team later performed a visual inspection on the source of the ultrasonic buzzing to find a loose connection that was promptly repaired.
Follow up measurements revealed the source of the ultrasound was eliminated.
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