When should an airport or transport hub have its electrical thermography survey?

During the busiest part of the operating day, not overnight. Baggage handling systems and terminal distribution are surveyed live with a thermal camera, with nothing switched off. A connection only shows a problem while it carries current, so the survey is timed to the peak banks of departures, when baggage belts, lighting, retail and HVAC are all running, and the load is recorded at every reading.

Why overnight is the wrong time

Airports and large transport hubs are often surveyed at night because it feels less disruptive. The problem is load. Between the last arrival and the first departure, baggage belts stand still, retail units are closed and much of the terminal lighting is dimmed. A poor connection that would run hot at 07:00 can look normal at 02:00 (see what load a survey needs). A live survey changes nothing for passengers: panels are opened by the site’s authorised person, imaged and closed again.

What should be in scope

Baggage handling system motor control centres, VSD panels and the sub-main boards feeding them, imaged while belts and sorters are running.
Terminal distribution boards for lighting, small power, retail and catering units.
HVAC plant panels for air handling units, chillers and pumps.
Main LV switchboards and generator changeover panels (see generator and ATS panels).
Comms and IT rooms with their UPS supplies, which run like a small data centre.

Equipment such as passenger boarding bridges and ground power units only carries current while an aircraft is on stand, so it is imaged when a stand is in use or left off the scope and listed as such.

Airside access and timing

Much of the baggage system and plant sits airside. Agree in advance who holds the passes, who escorts the thermographer, and which areas can be reached during operating hours. Plan the route around the flight schedule: baggage halls during the departure peaks, terminal boards mid-morning to mid-afternoon, plant rooms whenever the heating or cooling is working hardest. Larger terminals are usually split over several days (see who opens the panels).

Traps a good thermographer avoids

Intermittent load: a belt that stops between flights cools quickly. Readings are taken while it runs, and the report notes the load.
Light load: if a circuit is lightly loaded at the time, the report says so and the reading is treated as indicative.
Reflections from bare metal and stainless enclosures, which can look like hot spots.
Process heat from motors and drives, which is normal and not a connection fault.

What the report gives you

A same-day report from Ti Thermal Imaging that locates each finding by panel, circuit and phase, with the measured temperature, where it was taken, the difference in °C from a matching reference and the load at the time. Ti inspects and reports; the site’s electrical contractor investigates findings with the circuit isolated and carries out any work.

What thermography has found in critical buildings

On a London data centre build, commissioning thermography by our team found 16 busbar sections reading above 80 °C under test load, the highest 103.5 °C at a tap-off unit. A terminal is a different building, but the lesson is the same: connections are checked while they carry real load.

Frequently asked questions

Will baggage handling have to stop?

No. The survey is done with the system running; stopping it would remove the load the survey needs.

How often should an airport be surveyed?

Most sites survey annually, with busy or critical systems sometimes more often (see annual PPM thermography).

Does this apply to rail and bus stations?

Yes. The same rule holds: survey when the station is busy and its systems are working, not after the last service.