Steam and Hot Oil Pipeline Insulation Audit
Ram Engineering finds where heat escapes from your steam and thermic fluid lines, with its own thermal camera: bare or damaged insulation, lagging gaps and failed steam traps.
About this audit
Heat That Never Reaches the Process
Steam and hot oil carry heat from the boiler or heater to the machines that use it. On the way, heat escapes wherever a pipe, a valve or a flange is bare, wherever the insulation is wet, crushed or missing, and wherever a steam trap has failed. The audit goes along your thermal distribution lines to find those places.
Ram Engineering carries out the audit with our own thermal camera. The camera shows the surface temperature along the pipe, valves and flanges, so the places where heat escapes stand out, and traps that look cold or too hot are marked in the findings.
What the Audit Checks
- Surface radiation losses: heat given off by bare or poorly insulated pipe, valves and flanges
- Steam trap failures: traps stuck shut, holding back condensate, or stuck open, passing live steam
- Lagging and insulation gaps: missing, damaged or wet sections along the lines
- Both kinds of line: steam lines and hot oil (thermic fluid) lines
Why it matters
Why Small Losses Add Up
A hot pipe gives off heat for as long as it is in service. Insulation slows that loss; where it is missing or soaked, the loss returns, and on a long line it goes on for every hour the line runs.
A steam trap should let condensate out and keep steam in. A trap stuck shut backs condensate up the line, which slows heating and can cause water hammer; a trap stuck open lets live steam escape into the condensate line.
On hot oil lines, lagging that has soaked up leaked thermic fluid can catch fire, so an oil-soaked section seen along the line is noted in the findings.
What You Get
A list of the heat losses, failed steam traps and insulation gaps found on the lines covered, with where each one is, so that the repairs can be planned.
Questions About the Insulation Audit
Does the audit cover steam traps?
Yes. Failed steam traps are one of the things it looks for, along with bare pipe and gaps in the insulation.
Does it cover thermic fluid lines as well as steam?
Yes. The audit covers steam lines and hot oil (thermic fluid) lines.
How is this different from mechanical thermography?
Mechanical thermography is an infrared survey of running machines, steam traps and furnace shells. This audit takes our thermal camera along the steam and hot oil distribution lines, for heat losses, failed traps and gaps in the insulation.
Related Audits and Services
Thermal Utility and Fuel Oil Audit
Combustion efficiency, stack losses and excess air of boilers, heaters and furnaces on furnace oil, LDO or HSD, measured with our own flue gas analyser.
Mechanical Thermography
Infrared checks of bearings, motors, steam traps and refractory, to plan repairs before a breakdown.
Thermal System Solutions
Design, supply and maintenance of thermic fluid heaters, steam systems and heat recovery units.
Thermic Fluid Filtration
Filter heat transfer oil to remove carbon and sludge from the circuit.
Ask About an Insulation Audit
Tell us which lines you want covered. Rough answers are fine; we ask for the rest.
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