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| Infrared Thermometer & Hot Boxes https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1802 |
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| Author: | David Althaus [ Mon Jun 11, 2001 7:33 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Infrared Thermometer & Hot Boxes |
About six months ago we had a hotbox on a locomotive at the Orange Empire RR Museum. Of course we were a little worried then about the status of the other axles and kept feeling them to make sure they were OK. I had heard about Infrared Thermometer guns but had never tried one. A friend loaned his to me so I did a survey of of all eight journal bearings on the locomotive that we had the hotbox on. By this time we've had many hours of running after the hotbox was fixed so I expected that the bearings would be about the same temperature as the others. To my surprise the one we fixed was running 10 degees F cooler than 6 of the other ones which was the good news. The bad news was that I found one bearing that was about 20 degrees hotter than the rest. The following week we jacked up the journal box for the suspect bearing and pulled out the brass. Low and behold the Babbitt showed signs of being slightly hot and had justed started to flow. Thats the very begining of a hotbox melt down. We caught it just in time. We were able to lap the bearing back in using a real neat product called "Timesaver" which is made for lapping soft materials such as Babbitt. After the repair we ran the locomotive for about two hours and the journal that we worked on was lower in temperature than the other by about 4 degrees. We then ran a temperature survey on another locomotive that we had replaced 5 journal pads in recently. All of the journal bearings were within 5 degrees F of each other. That gave us a comfortable feeling that things were OK on that locomotive. You may already be using an Infrared Thermometer for a number of tasks but if not I would sure recommend that it is a worthwhile tool to have available. It can detect clogged tubes in a radiator, closed or open valves in piping, exhaust manifold temperatures for each cylinder, and on and on. I bought mine from ENCO at 1-800-873-3626. They have them on sale through June 30th for $96.99 which includes a built in spotting laser. The carry pouch with a loop for a belt is $8.99. DWALTHAUS@AOL.COM |
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| Author: | Mike Pearle [ Tue Jun 12, 2001 11:41 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Infrared Thermometer & Hot Boxes |
> Steamtown uses these regularly, keeping statistics.. I believe that after running 6-8 heavyweights up and down the 1.5% Pocono Main, they expect readings of 160-180 degrees with 200 considered hot. |
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| Author: | David Althaus [ Wed Jun 13, 2001 11:12 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Infrared Thermometer & Hot Boxes |
OERM runs an S-4 and a MRS1 on weekends for passenger service. After a day of making a 2 mile run back and forth four or five times we find the journal bearings to be around 100 degrees. I can envision the temperature getting up to the 160 degree level climbing steep grades pulling a good sized load. DWALTHAUS@AOL.COM |
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| Author: | Phil Mulligan [ Wed Jun 13, 2001 11:28 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Infrared Thermometer & Hot Boxes |
> OERM runs an S-4 and a MRS1 on weekends for > passenger service. After a day of making a 2 > mile run back and forth four or five times > we find the journal bearings to be around > 100 degrees. I can envision the temperature > getting up to the 160 degree level climbing > steep grades pulling a good sized load. Do you test your motor-axle bearings or your armature bearings? Electric City Trolley Museum Associ |
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| Author: | David Althaus [ Wed Jun 13, 2001 9:52 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Infrared Thermometer & Hot Boxes |
> Do you test your motor-axle bearings or your > armature bearings? So far we've just tested the outer axle friction type journal bearings. We need to do the rest at some point but for the moment we don't have a pit that we can get the Diesels on so taking the temperature of the inner bearings is a hassle. I'm sure that as time goes on we will be testing a lot of components for temperature history. It just makes good sense to do it since it is so easy and accurate. One of the other uses that we are going to try and use the Infrared Thermometer for is setting the racks on the Diesel engines. I understand from a number of sources that the engines can be tweaked in very accurately by adjusting the rack on each fuel pump so that the exhaust outlets for each cylinder are almost identical. We'll see how it works. DWALTHAUS@AOL.COM |
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