What Needs To Be Protected Against Winter Weather?
With winter approaching, now is the time to start preparing for a range of weather conditions that will affect your business. Freezing temperatures can have severe effects on equipment, pipework, and facilities, as well as production processes and products. Winterisation will help.
Critical Applications
It’s important that plant operators and commercial facility managers protect their whole business and operations against freezing conditions, but as a minimum the following critical applications should be winterised:
Equipment, pipework, & Process Lines – Equipment and pipework that stores and processes substances can quickly feel the effects of freezing temperatures. If icing takes hold, whole production lines can come to a halt and stored materials perish. Increasing costs from unplanned maintenance, production downtime, and the replacement of materials.
Fire Protection – Emergency assets like fire water supplies, hoses and sprinkler systems are paramount that they are protected from the effects of sub-zero conditions. It goes without saying this equipment needs to be available for use the whole year round in the event of an emergency.
Access Ways & Roofing – Icing is a severe problem when facilities operate in cold to sub-zero climates. Snow fall, atmospheric icing, and in the case of offshore, sea-water spray causes surfaces to become extremely slippery, increasing the chance of injury to personnel. The build-up of snow and ice also creates a problem for a structure’s integrity due to the increase weight on its roof and support structure.
Emergency Access & Equipment – Frozen door and hatch seals which are part of an emergency exit route could create a major safety hazard in an emergency if not protected against winter weather. Also, equipment such as decontamination showers will not function as expected if winterisation is not considered for their use in freezing conditions.
Frost protection for off-shore – Helidecks, louvers, lifeboat davits, access ways and GPS / communication equipment is critical to reduce health and safety threats and maintain safe operations.
What Winterisation Services Does Powertherm Provide?
Trace Heating
We offer trace heating services for temperature maintenance and frost protection applications. Our CompEX trained engineers can design, supply, install, and maintain trace heating systems in both hazardous and non-hazardous environments.
From constant wattage to self-regulating heat tracing, we provide full trace heating systems including control systems, junction boxes, and digital temperature read outs. Design drawings and supporting documentation are provided to ensure operators understand the system installed. We understand trace heating systems need to be regularly tested, inspected, and maintained for optimisation and performance, particularly Winterisation inspections.
Our teams have the skills and experience to protect your equipment and facilities from the effects of freezing conditions.
Industrial Insulation
As a leader in industrial insulation supply and installation we understand the importance a high quality, appropriately specified, and maintained insulation system is to achieve the required thermal performance and provide weather protection.
Insulation not only provides a layer of protection from freezing temperatures but also improves the performance of the trace heating system: both protecting it and optimising its heating capability.
For more on our Industrial Insulation service >>
Winterisation Inspections & Testing
Winterisation is an inspection of trace heating and insulation systems. For insulation a visual inspection is undergone to check the integrity of the system. If signs of degradation are found, further inspections and possibly removal and reinstatement of the insulation system may be required.
For trace heating our service is split into two parts: a visual inspection and electrical testing.