Application Note

3 Fluke Corporation Reviewer gives Fluke 568 Infrared two thumbs up for maintenance and system monitoring
Fluke was curious whether
the intense electromagnetic field
would affect the thermometer’s
firmware, and Woelk was like-
wise interested in finding a tool
that could withstand it. Woelk
saved that part of the plant until
the end of his tests, just to be
sure, but the 568 performed just
fine.
The processing cells are
interconnected through 60 flex-
ible copper lines to each anode
and cathode. In all, there are
more than 4000 electrical con-
nections on the cell lines and
maintenance is an issue. When
the plant was new, Woelk had a
thermal scan done with a Fluke
Ti30
™
Thermal Imager to check
for hot spots at the cells and on
a harmonic filter bank that might
indicate loose connections. He
found several, did the repairs,
and gained 2 percent in rectifier
output. That, in turn, increased
total plant production.
A matrix of data points
Now, Woelk plans to keep those
connections working properly
by scanning with the Fluke 568.
He was impressed with the tool
when he tested it. “I found it
really simple to use,” he said. “I
could navigate through the menu
on the 568 without even refer-
ring to the manual. It’s really
straightforward to understand.”
“It’s very easy to save all
your data with just a one-hand
operation, by pushing your save
button a couple of times. I down-
loaded data into my computer
and created a couple of rough
spreadsheets to see how things
functioned. So far I’ve been
pretty pleased with it.”
Regarding the contact probe,
Woelk said it wouldn’t help in
his environment. “Typically the
places that we’re shooting, we
don’t really want to contact them
with any metal objects. We try to
isolate ourselves from the actual
current going through our cell
rooms,” he said. “That’s why we
want a tester that’s non-contact.”
All the more reason for that 50:1
distance to spot accuracy.
Woelk is already planning a
use for the Fluke 568’s logging
capability, creating a spread-
sheet matrix to use consistently
recorded readings taken in multi-
ple locations. “With a matrix laid
out, I know that what I’m sav-
ing in location 1 is going to be
this piece of equipment, so I can
just go ahead and take my data
points according to my matrix.
When I put it on a spreadsheet, I
know what memory location rep-
resents which physical location.”
Suggestions? “An infrared
tester able to read through
plastic would be handy,” Woelk
said. Plexiglas
®
safety windows
separate workers from Equa-
Chlor’s high voltage equipment.
The Fluke 568, like all infrared
devices, can’t penetrate the plas-
tic and just reads the infrared
radiation from the surface.
The bright yellow Fluke 568
will coordinate nicely with the
color scheme in Woelk’s toolbox.
“Pretty much all my meters are
Flukes,” he said, “I’ve also got a
Fluke 85 that I’ve had for about
15 years or so. The only thing
I’ve done to that is I did upgrade
the display with a kit. It’s defi-
nitely been worth the money.”
This is the plant’s harmonic filter bank. Woelk is checking capacitors,
insulators, and terminations. The temperatures of these connections
varies with ambient air and plant load.
Todd Woelk in front of the 2 kA aluminum bus at Equa-Chlor.
Fluke Corporation
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©2008 Fluke Corporation. Specifications subject
to change without notice. Printed in U.S.A.
1/2008 3239590 A-EN-N Rev A
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