Is your facility ready for winter? Lee Parnaby from our jackets team has written a short blog to help you prepare for the colder months…
When temperatures fall during winter, your facility could face unexpected challenges, which your maintenance team should be preparing for now to reduce any potential impact and avoid unplanned costs.
The impact of winter is particularly relevant to facilities that are based in cold climates or where essential equipment is located outdoors and more vulnerable to any significant dips in weather conditions.
Additional insulation protection may be required for piping components, instruments and equipment to prevent unplanned equipment downtime if they are going to be subject to cold temperatures. Do you know what the optimal operating temperatures are for your equipment? Will it still operate if temperatures fall below freezing? If they aren't operating effectively, they may provide you with false readings and begin to affect the overall operation.
What are some of the issues your maintenance team may have experienced in previous years?
There are several indicators that your equipment is struggling to cope with colder temperatures and would benefit from insulation. You may have noticed in previous years:
• The fluid you work with has a pour point above the minimum ambient temperature
• Batteries or filters have an issue with cold start
• Liquid crystal displays on your devices cease to operate
• The fluid has normal operating temperature below the dew point of the surrounding air and condensation of water vapour may form on the external surface of pipes and equipment
• Valves and other moving parts do not operate correctly. The varying ambient temperature conditions and combined effect of wind, ice and snow not only increase downtime and maintenance costs, but can lead to expensive equipment replacements. Our ContraFlex® bespoke jackets are designed to help eliminate all these issues;
• By containing a heat tracing element that runs through the inner face of the jacket, providing heat to the equipment to stop freezing, plus is insulated in order to
retain heat throughout the equipment
• The jacket will protect your equipment from direct contact with the harsh elements.
Top Tip…
ContraFlex® jackets can be installed with a clear, winter resistant window, so that readouts can still be inspected.