Inspections are an important part of preventing damages and injuries. They are especially beneficial in some industries, where even the most minor mechanical problem can have widespread and serious damage. One example of this is in the power and electrical industry. Power lines are run across many cities, providing power to the local residents. A single downed power line can affect the city?s ability to run power and it can also be a fire hazard. Inspections of these electrical power lines can prevent such damages.
The complex design of electrical lines
Electrical power lines are all over. It doesn?t matter if you drive through a busy downtown city or through a rural city, you will find them. You probably do not pay much attention to them, because they have become just another daily thing to see. However, these electrical power lines are more important than you might think. Sure, they affect the ability to push electricity into your residential and commercial businesses, but they also supply power to water treatment plants, hospitals, and commercial businesses. Without the electrical lines, it could severely affect society as we know it. This is what makes turbine support inspections so important.
The inspection of accompanying parts
It is not only important to have turbine support of the main electrical lines, but also the accompanying parts, including the power lines, the individual mechanical pieces, and especially the electrical wires themselves. This is perhaps, the hardest part of the inspection and turbine support process. How can you complete a borescope inspection of an electrical line? You cannot slice into the line, but instead, have to find an alternative method for seeing in the electrical line.
The use of turbine support services
This challenging problem is what has led to turbine support services. These are specialist contractors that use specific tools to view inside of electrical and gas lines. They do this with borescopes. A borescope is a very small camera system that can be pushed through the different lines to get a view of the interior workings. After the inspections are completed, a borescope inspection report is provided to the business. Sometimes, the report will have specific recommendations for improvements or when it fails the report, it might be recommended that the wires be entirely replaced.
The requirement of these turbine support reports
Some cities are passing regulations that require these borescope inspections every so often. The specific timeline often depends on the city and the type of project. When it comes to high risk lines such as electrical or gas lines, the gas turbine inspections are usually required more frequently. Natural gas is the second most largely heavily consumed energy source in the United States.
Additionally, the United States was the largest producer of natural gas worldwide in 2016, extracting almost 750 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Some believe that a problem with the gas lines would be more disruptive than one to the electrical lines. Either way, both are of extreme importance. Gas turbines also tend to operate at a much higher temperature than steam turbines, typically at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit versus 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit for a steam turbine. The extreme temperature differences also contribute to differing turbine support inspection needs.
Inspections are a common term in industrial businesses. They are especially necessary and useful in some industrial industries including gas, electrical, and other natural resources. These inspection reports ensure that the inner workings are in good working condition and that potential harmful risks are at a very minimum amount.