Location | East Hartford, CT |
Industry | Aerospace & Defense |
Completion Date | September 2025 |
Services | Predictive Electrical Maintenance (Infrared Thermography) |
Project Background
C&H Electric performed a scheduled predictive electrical maintenance inspection using Infrared Thermography at an aerospace and defense manufacturing facility in East Hartford, CT. The goal of the service was to proactively identify potential electrical failures before they could lead to unplanned downtime or costly production interruptions.
During the inspection, our maintenance specialists identified a hot spot on a molded case circuit breaker feeding a main bus duct within the facility’s manufacturing area. The thermal imaging revealed an abnormally high temperature reading caused by a poor electrical connection inside the breaker, which was actively melting insulation and overheating the breaker assembly.
The Challenges
The faulty breaker was supplying power to a main bus duct that fed critical production equipment across the facility. Had the issue gone undetected, the customer would have experienced a complete loss of power to all connected production systems, resulting in a total shutdown of operations.
The client estimated downtime costs at approximately $2,500 per hour, with an expected repair time of 3–4 weeks if the system had failed. This represented a potential $300,000 loss in production revenue, excluding secondary impacts on delivery timelines and contractual penalties.
The Solution
Using infrared thermography as part of C&H Electric’s predictive maintenance program, our technicians quickly pinpointed the source of overheating. The team coordinated with the facility’s maintenance department to design, schedule, and safely perform the corrective maintenance before a failure occurred.
The Results
By identifying the issue early, C&H Electric helped the customer avoid a system failure that would have halted production for weeks. The proactive repair prevented roughly $300,000 in potential downtime costs, safeguarded production continuity, and extended the service life of critical electrical assets—all for apredictive maintenance investment of less than $10,000.
This case demonstrates how predictive electrical maintenance delivers measurable ROI, protecting both operational uptime and capital assets in mission-critical environments like aerospace manufacturing.
