CCS Steam Trap Survey

Are your steam traps working? Or are you blowing energy dollars right through them? A comprehensive steam trap survey is one of the best applications for Infrared Thermography and Ultrasonic Inspection. It gives a very clear picture of performance and viability of a steam trap. It’s an area of your energy recovery that is easily measurable, and easily improved.

What are your steam leaks costing you?

Just for the sake of discussion, let’s say you have one little steam leak about the size of this dot, , somewhere in your system. We’ll assume that you have 150psig steam and that your cost to produce that steam is $9 per every 1000 pounds. According to Napier’s formula, your steam loss is about 103 pounds per hour. Looking at this over a year’s time, (103 X 24 X 365/1000)($9), that one little leak is costing you about $8,120 each year.

If this leak happened to be this big, , your yearly loss from that one leak is over $32,500/year.

How many leaking steam traps, bypass valves, unions, etc. do you have?

The State of Your Industry

Now more than ever, rising fuel costs and marked downturns in the economy have impacted your industry. Weaker demand for manufactured products and elevated production costs have left us all scrambling to operate more efficiently. Adopting energy saving practices in your production can have a huge positive impact.

For this reason, CCS has taken bold steps with new initiatives to insulate ourselves and our customers from these dramatic downturns by offering value-added services. One of these services is a complete and comprehensive steam and hot water production cost survey that can pinpoint opportunities for savings and to recover wasted energy.

Downtime is Expensive

Are you Proactive or Reactive in your maintenance? Our survey that combines Thermal Imaging, Ultrasonic Inspection, and Data Analysis can be used to both prevent problems for occurring and to troubleshoot them when they do occur. Our system makes the invisible, visible and helps pinpoint potential problem areas faster than any other measurement tool. A failing steam trap, a leaking regulating valve, or an un-seated isolation valve can not only waste energy dollars, but cause unscheduled shutdowns and downtime.

The Inspection Processes:  There are two schools of methodology for comprehensive steam trap surveys. We subscribe to both.

1. Digital Infrared Thermography:  Rather than seeing light, digital thermography instruments create pictures of heat. They measure infrared (IR) radiation and convert the data to images corresponding to the source temperatures. Fast, safe and accurate  non-contact measurements can be obtained from objects even if they are moving or very hot, difficult to reach, expensive to shut-down, or dangerous to contact.

2. Ultrasonic Inspection:  Ultrasonic inspection of steam traps has been a mainstay of solid energy and safety inspection for years, starting with the mechanic’s stethoscope.  When steam traps leak or fail, it can be extremely costly in terms of product quality, safety , and energy loss. Ultrasonic inspection is another method for surveying equipment while in operation. This process, combined with our Digital Thermography, gives a complete and concise survey. Working particularly well on steam traps, this method allows us to literally tune into the sound of a working trap and clearly identify leaking or failed traps.

Our Detailed Report Gives New Insight Over Traditional Inspection Methods  

Availability to detailed data is great. Availability to properly interpreted and analyzed data that can be utilized to implement meaningful change that produces tangible results is better.

Our survey focuses on the details and precisely targets areas for potential improvement, both in energy dollars and preventative maintenance. The result of the survey is a report that you and your team can use to make the most of project and maintenance resources. Efficiency is key, we help you get there.

You’ll see detailed imaging and textual analysis along with achievable recommendations that are easy for everyone on your team to understand and implement from the Maintenance Manager to the Purchasing Engineer, from the Project Engineer to the C.E.O. Know where you’re wasting your money, and know where to put your future efforts.

 Advantages of Our Inspection Report Advantages of Our Inspection Report

1. Energy Savings—KNOW where you’re losing energy, don’t spend money guessing

2. Safety—Avoid catastrophic failure or injury

3. Greater Asset Reliability—Reduces unscheduled outages

4. Increased Revenue—More up time, revenue is maximized

5. Reduced Outage Costs—Planned maintenance saves

6. More Efficient Inspections—Make the invisible, Visible

7. Improved and Less Expensive Maintenance—Target your efforts and budget

8. Reduced Spare Parts Inventory—Stock fewer spares

Call CCS today for more information or to schedule this valuable service for your facility.