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Critical vessel monitoring: Detect hot spots sooner with thermal imaging

Accurately measuring temperature has always been one of the most important and difficult things to do when monitoring the safety of critical vessels in refining and other industrial plants. Extreme temperatures and non-uniform temperature gradients make it nearly impossible for traditional temperature measurement methods to monitor every critical point or obtain complete temperature data. The lack of accurate and early detection of temperature changes increases the likelihood of failure-related problems, which createsafety and reliability issues. The consequences of undetected failures can be very serious and pose extreme safety risks if a vessel isn’t properly monitored. A rupture in chemical reactors, storage tanks, and piping systems can all lead to catastrophic loss of life, product, and capacity. These all require sophisticated monitoring techniques tospot irregular temperatures and trends that precede unsafe and costly problems. Innovative thermal imaging systems, however, have demonstrated how radio­metric thermography has evolved into a matureand cost-competitive alternative. The non-contact nature of infrared thermal imaging is more robust, more reliable, and easier to maintain. It is also more modern with technological advantages such as graphical visual displays, historical archiving and trending, and easy integration to plant SCADA systems.

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