Imagine the situation. You are standing in the power tools section of your local hardware store gazing longingly at the dazzling array of equipment with which you could transform your home into something worthy of a Bob Vila masterpiece. Your attention is caught by a particularly attractive offer: a 12-inch Dual-Bevel Compound Miter Saw (with laser tracking) for $449. It seems like a really good deal!
A little devil on one shoulder says “Go on. No more messy edges. Wouldn’t that be great!” But the angel on the other shoulder says “Hang on, haven’t you heard of the credit crunch? How often are you actually going to use that saw? Can you really afford to spend the cash? And where will you keep it? If you really need a miter saw, why don’t you just rent one?”
Luckily, your partner arrives and you don’t have to make a decision but the dilemma that you faced is one that many of us have to deal with in our everyday working lives. In place of the miter saw, see a thermal imager or a borescope. In place of the angel, see your boss. In place of the devil, see yourself. And in place of your partner, see the CFO!
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| Entry level thermal imagers are ideal for simple applications such as identifying hot or cold spots in equipment. All photos courtesy of Ashtead Technology. |
Many Factors to Consider
As a business, Ashtead Technology (my employer) has achieved considerable success, not least because it has often viewed renting as a better alternative to buying. Most of us buy equipment when we need it. However, how many of us stop to consider the renting alternative and its many advantages (see below)?
Let us suppose that you want to carry out an intensive maintenance check on key machinery using thermography. A thermal imager (see photo on page 18) can be used within industry to inspect, maintain and optimise inspections by scanning and visualizing the temperature distribution of machinery and electrical equipment quickly and accurately. Because equipment usually gets hot before it fails, engineers are easily able to locate problems or identify hotspots’ and avoid any costly operational failures, downtime or health and safety hazards. So, you decide that you need a thermal imager for predictive maintenance. But since this is not a frequent occurrence, it seems logical to rent one. However, if you and your colleagues can find use for this equipment every week, it might make more sense to buy the instrument. So, this simple example demonstrates that the decision to rent is often dictated by the frequency of intended use. However, there are a number of other advantages to renting.
Fast Replacement
Suppose the thermal imager breaks down, you spend a couple of hours trying to fix it, give up and then try and convince the manufacturer that it should be replaced under warranty. Manufacturers usually don’t have 24-hour support lines; they are typically there 9-5 Monday through Friday. Rental companies, on the other hand, do have on-call engineers and can assist in troubleshooting equipment at any time or arrange for a replacement unit to be dispatched immediately. If a rented instrument malfunctions, it is replaced quickly because the rental company is anxious to make sure the instrument performs to specification so that you might rent it again.
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| Ashtead Technologys range of thermal imagers available for rent includes the Fluke Ti45. |
Clean and Good to Go
Thermal imagers are usually kept in pretty good condition. However, if your instrument is a borescope and, for one reason or another, you did not clean it adequately at the end of the last day’s work, you might find that time is wasted preparing the instrument for when you next need it.
In comparison, rented equipment is always delivered clean, checked and ready for use. So if you had rented a borescope, it would have been delivered clean to the siteon the prescribed dayat the right time.
Let us also suppose that a colleague in a different department heard that you had your own equipment, and asked if he could borrow it for use on a site in the next county. Will he look after it properly and return it in its original condition? And will he return it when he said he would?
Faster Access to the Latest Technology
The following year your colleague calls again and asks if you can bring your thermal imager to an important site where they have a specific maintenance issue. However, when you get there you discover that the job requires a thermal imager with a greater temperature range. So your colleague rents the latest thermal imager and you are frustrated to discover that imager technology has moved on since you made your purchase, and that the rented model is much easier to use.
You would love to have the new model, but having purchased the (now) older model, you are stuck with it, unless you can find a way to dispose of it. However, it did cost a large amount of money and might be of use one day, so you keep it and lock it up in a storage area (even though your company is still paying monthly depreciation on it). In all of these scenarios, you would wish that you had rented rather than purchased your thermal imager (or miter saw).
Choosing the Right Instrument
There are simple applications for which it is only necessary to identify cold or hot spots, so an entry-level device is the most cost-effective. However, professional thermographers require greater detail, resolutions and features, such as the ability to take visual images and record audio notes with the same instrument. Mid-level instruments are therefore necessary.
At the top-end of the market, the most advanced thermal cameras offer incredible levels of resolution across a wide temperature range, which is important in applications such as research.
Each time you rent a thermal imager, or any other piece of equipment, you have the opportunity to choose the model that suits your application. The next time you need an imager, you would be able to rent the latest, higher-quality model. Then at the end of each renting period you simply return the imager so you have no storage or disposal problems.
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| Andy Holroyd is senior vice president of Ashtead Technologys North American operations. |
Thermal imagers might be very different from other instruments, but the same principles apply. For example, within our fleet of rental instruments there are many that are employed for inspection and maintenance. These include high-speed cameras, borescopes, fiberscopes, pipe and cable trackers, pipeline inspection crawlers and, of course, thermal imagers.
Finances
The strongest case for renting is, of course, the financial one. Credit is in short supply, and pressure has mounted on capital expenditure budgets, which has heightened the need for rental equipment. A further financial reason for renting is the cost of depreciation; equipment is often written down over a three-year period (sometimes less), which can have a significant effect on the bottom line.
Calibration and Maintenance Skills
The case for renting technical instruments is even stronger than it is for other equipment because they often require external calibration, or at the very least, skilful maintenance with specialist equipment. It makes sense for this work to be performed by fully equipped and trained technicians, and for this reason, the rental company technicians have all been trained by instrument manufacturers. The expertise of the rental company’s engineers and sales representatives is also vitally important in helping customers to [1] select the right equipment and [2] use it to its best effect. This type of help ensures that once customers are comfortable with the device, they are able to get accurate and precise results.
Summary
The case for renting is stronger if the equipment is expensive to buy or not destined for frequent use. Renting also makes sense for customers that need access to the latest technology, or if they do not wish to bear the cost and inconvenience of storage. Also, some equipment may require skilled calibration and maintenance, coupled with specialist training and the cost of this (and all other financial considerations related to using the piece of equipment) could be preclusive. So, the next time you find yourself thinking illogically at a hardware store or considering purchasing a piece of equipment for use on your job, remember to listen to the angel on your shoulder!
