Archives for November 2020

Meet Felix!

Felix is the definition of “servant heart.” Custodian on the weekdays and Pastor on Sundays.
Felix does an outstanding job keeping Decatur Industrial Electric clean. However, this employee spotlight section is going to concentrate more on what Felix does outside of our four walls because, well, it’s pretty cool!

Growing up in Nigeria, Felix felt his calling to be a pastor at a young age, but it took many years for him to accept this. He moved to the United States to attend college. He attended Monmouth College and later attended the University of Illinois to receive his masters. After getting his masters, he started working, but still felt a calling to be a pastor. Today he is the Pastor of Bethel A.M.E. Church in Clinton, Iowa (where he travels every weekend!).

Outside of work and the ministry, Felix likes to relax and watch some of his favorite programs – basically anything on PBS and Discovery. He loves nature programs and anything about outerspace exploration. Oh – and we can’t forget football.

Felix A. has been with Decatur Industrial Electric going on 4 years.

See Felix in the news: Clinton Herald

Don’t Forget Test Notes

Some technicians may have a near photographic memory and can remember details about the motor and environment they tested a week ago without confusing it with the other 25 motors they have tested since. However, for the rest of us mere mortals it is critical to add a test note at the end of a test to identify anything that may benefit the analysis or troubleshooting of this motor now or in the future. A technician may modify a normal test routine for troubleshooting, questionable test data, etc… The reasons for the unusual test data are unknown, unless there is a note attached to the asset that explains the anomaly. Analysts may be looking at cyclic anomalies thinking that a problem exists and a possible overhaul may be required when the root cause of the anomaly might be an environmental temperature change or a process transition or just a bad set of data due to a connection problem. The eyes and ears of the technician can not be over rated. A simple conversation between the technician and the operator can be worth so much to the analyst, but if that piece of information stays in the head of the technician and never makes it to the test notes, then the analyst is left in the dark. For you MCEGold® users the Message Center offers a centralized location for test notes and messages to be added to an asset. It also auto records any changes to the asset health condition with the opportunity to add the reasons why. By popular demand the pop up asking if you want to add a note following a test has returned, making it even easier to add test notes.

Contributed to PdMA

Part-Time Accounts Payable Position (Temporary)

Decatur Industrial is looking to fill a part-time accounts payable position. This position would start immediately and would be needed for the next 2- 3 months (with the possibility of extension.)

$15/hour with possibility for more if meets or exceeds requirements below:

Requirements:

Basic understanding of Accounts Payable
Organized
Works independently once trained
Basic Excel and Word skills

Click to apply online.

Look for the Swirl

For many people the word “swirl” creates visions of whirlpools, storm winds, or even ice cream cones. But if you have been in the reliability industry, and specifically the electrical reliability industry, the word swirl means something totally different. The late G.B. Kliman is credited for much of the research documentation surrounding the swirl effect sometimes referred to as the 5th harmonic analysis of AC induction motor rotors. This research showed that the phase shift in the air-gap flux density surrounding a broken bar will result in pole-pass frequency sidebands at the 5th harmonic of line frequency. And of equal importance, it showed that these sidebands are less affected by other non-rotor bar related anomalies unlike the case with sidebands around line frequency. As an example, asymmetries like bearing eccentricity or an out of round rotor can mask or give a false indication of a rotor bar issue when looking at the sidebands around line frequency, but again, have little effect on the sideband clarity at the 5th harmonic of line frequency.

To see a case study discussing the swirl effect visit the PdMA YouTube Channel at: