Applications
Faults

Mechanical, structural, and electrical faults are errors in asset integrity and function that interrupt equipment operation, cause accidents in your facility, and create a huge hazard for personnel.

Faults include any unanticipated discontinuities in the normal operation of assets and equipment. Factors from normal plant activities, combined with the stress of other defects and influences from the surrounding environment, can combine and cause your assets to fault unexpectedly.

Electrical Faults

Power transformers and other electrical equipment contain sensitive componentry that is subject to cause complete asset failure if a fault occurs. Faults in power transformers can create a huge risk for the entire facility, along with causing costly shutdowns that slow plant production and limit production capacity. Insulation degradation, overheating, surges, moisture mechanical defects, and other factors contribute to many common types of electrical faults, including:

• Partial Discharge
• Arcing
• Hot Spots
• Loose Connections
• Static Electrification
• Core Clamping Problems

Bus Bar Faults

Bar bars are critical components in electric power distribution, serving to connect high-voltage equipment within electrical systems. Bus bar faults can have serious effects on plant operation, with the potential to cause discontinuities in the entire power distribution network.

Common causes of bus bar faults include:

• Insulator failures
• Pollution
• Overvoltage
• Failure of connected equipment
• Mechanical damage
• Foreign objects crossing the fault current
• Carbon buildup
• High temperatures
• Cracking

Process Faults

Process faults can affect any critical asset located within refinery or process plant environments. Refinery equipment undergoes extreme stress during daily operation, and process faults include all resulting malfunctions in tooling equipment that may occur as a result. Internal and external defects, along with manual errors in any technical processes, can result in process faults within your facility, affecting a variety of assets including motors, pumps, other kinds of rotating equipment, and piping systems.

Structural Faults

Structural faults in infrastructure assets create huge risks to the public who utilize assets including bridges and commercial buildings.

When infrastructure assets experience increased loads, heavy strains, internal defects, and weather and environmental influences, structural integrity can be reduced to the point of risking complete asset failure. Common structural faults include:

• Rot in wooden structures
• Human design error
• Cracking
• Bulging/collapsed walls
• Earthquake damages
• Weather damage

MISTRAS Fault Solutions

With a wide variety of non-destructive testing (NDT) products and services, MISTRAS can provide comprehensive inspection, monitoring, repair, and prevention services for any potential faults in your facility. Our NDT expertise and engineering capabilities allow MISTRAS technicians to be fully-equipped to manage any damage identified in your assets and handle faults before they lead to complete asset failure, regardless of asset type or location.