Thermal imaging cameras save Clarks estimated £250,000 02 June 2010

Knapp UK's customer support team at the shoe retailer's distribution centre has used thermal imaging techniques to save in excess of a quarter of a million pounds in repair and downtime costs in just three months.

Ebb Kretschmer, head of customer services for Knapp UK, says that thermal imaging is used routinely at all four of its UK sites, with a resident service team doing the work.

"We use thermal imaging as part of our regular maintenance regimes. It is highly effective and allows us to be proactive, rather than reactive to faults and failures," comments Kretschmer.

At Clarks' warehouse in Street, Somerset, the thermal imaging highlighted a damaged motor and gearbox, a problem PLC, a phase imbalance on a shrink-wrapping machine and damage to the X-axis on a stacker crane.

Says Kevin Ashman, site manager for Knapp at Clarks: "We would never have found these risky problems at this stage without the thermal imaging equipment. Correcting these faults in a controlled way avoided breakdowns that would have been extremely costly."

And Kretschmer adds: "As differences between normal operating temperature and higher levels, due to malfunction, cannot be picked up on sight by even the most highly skilled engineer, the use of thermal imaging as part of routine maintenance makes perfect sense. It is a non-contact form of testing, which can be carried out while equipment is running – in production and on load."

Brian Tinham

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