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Decatur Industrial Electric Expands Team with Art Anderson as Production Supervisor

Decatur Industrial Electric is pleased to announce Art Anderson has joined the company as Production Supervisor. Anderson is an experienced operations professional with a demonstrated history of working in the automotive and manufacturing industries.
 
In his new role, Anderson will be focusing primarily on execution of the production schedule, coordination of teams, quality and safety assistance, lean and 5S manufacturing, and overseeing all shop technicians.
 
“Art has a track record of success in both small private companies and large public ones,” said Cole Namken, Director of Operations. “As we continue to grow, Art’s experience leading teams in a customer focused operations environment will help us continue to make American Manufacturing reliable and deliver total cost of ownership improvements for more customers.”
 
aMost recently, Art worked as a Section Manager in Decatur for a Fortune 100 company. Anderson resides in Mt. Zion, Illinois with his wife, Amanda, and their three son

Siemens’ gearless drive technology powers high-capacity overland conveyor in Quellaveco

With the rugged landscape in Quellaveco, transporting the primary crushed ore requires durable and efficient technology systems. By employing Siemens’ technology on this project, thyssenkrupp’s new conveyor system will transport 127,500 tons of primary crushed ore per day from the pit to the stockpile adjacent to the copper concentrator. Vast sections of the overland conveyor must traverse from one valley to another through a 3.2 km long tunnel. After exiting the tunnel, the conveyor will pass over hilly terrain before feeding the stockpile. 
 
Compared with the combination of high-speed motor and gearboxes otherwise used in belt conveyor systems, the gearless drive solution offers a range of benefits. The size of the motor is not limited anymore by the size of gearbox, thus eliminating the necessity to install multi-motor drives. The required belt driving power can be provided with one drive per drive pulley. This means that the number of switchgear enclosure could also be scaled down, saving space and weight within the e-house. The elimination of a whole series of mechanical and electrical components increases the reliability and efficiency of the overall system by between 3-4%. 
 
Another important factor is that the maintenance requirements of the drive system have been significantly reduced. This is important as gear maintenance work alone can account for up to 5% per year of the original investment volume for the gears.
thyssenkrupp’s overland conveyor is 4,700 m long, 1,830 mm wide featuring Siemens’ dual 5.5 MW gearless drives operating at a design tonnage of nearly 11,000 tons per hour. Siemens also provides the e-house with MV and LV power distribution and the cooling system for motors and e-house. The automation of the conveyor system as well as for the complete mine will be realized with the process control system Simatic PCS-7.
 
“This order again shows how gearless conveyor systems meet today’s demand for ever more efficient mining solutions and increased safety requirements,” Torsten Gerlach, CEO of thyssenkrupp’s Mining Technologies business unit explains. “It is the seventh overland conveyor project of this magnitude utilizing gearless drives that have been awarded to us since 2010. Together with our partner Siemens, we have managed to become one of the world leaders in bringing this technology to the market.”
 
For further information on Mining Solutions, please see 
www.siemens.com/mining-digitalization

Motor Magnetic Center

Running a motor uncoupled will pull the motor rotor into a magnetic center, often marked on the shaft to ensure that the rotor is lined up on the magnetic center when it is coupled to the load. Axial misalignment of a coupling can occur if the coupling ends are not close enough when they are bolted together resulting in pulling the rotor out of magnetic center. When this happens the rotor is constantly trying to pull itself through axial thrusting back to magnetic center and could result in uneven and or excessive bearing wear. Using the EMAX technology you can evaluate the 5th harmonic peak as an indicator of this magnetic center offset and axial movement. Normally the 5th harmonic is a single clean peak in the current spectrum. However, if axial thrusting is occurring the 5th harmonic will split into two smeared peaks.

To see an example and hear a case study on a suspect magnetic center offset visit the PdMA YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh2Cx6yqviw

Don’t Start that Motor!

Back in May of this year we discussed the importance of Quality Control testing of your new or refurbished electric motors. Today we have a case study showing the importance of Quality Control testing for a newly commissioned system. All too often a new or refurbished motor gets installed and started on looks alone with no pre-qualifying data to justify the asset’s health. Where was the motor stored? How was the motor shipped? Were the power leads (Power Circuit) connected properly? Is the voltage supply balanced? Is the motor properly engineered and specified for the application? These are just a few questions that a good Quality Control program and testing plan will be able to answer. For MCEMAX® users, a three minute test will give qualifying baseline information about the motor to compare to industry standards and support an acceptance decision. And remember, for any newly installed motor, don’t start the motor unless the electric motor reliability team is on site to perform In-Rush/Start-Up testing on the motor when it first starts. This start-up data is crucial in qualifying the power quality, power circuit, stator, rotor and air gap. Additionally, it gives you critical comparison data for future troubleshooting efforts involving this motor and its application.

To see a new case study on the results of missing a quality control test, view the PdMA YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wp2nwOwxeY

Converting motors from horizontal mount to vertical mount

Examine mechanical factors that should be considered when applying a horizontal ball-bearing motor in a vertical mounting position.

By Tom Bishop, P.E., EASA

Oct 08, 2019

Occasionally an end user wants to take a motor designed for horizontal mounting and use it in a vertical position. (Figure 1 illustrates a horizontal motor in a vertical shaft down position.) This article addresses some of the key mechanical factors that should be considered when applying a horizontal ball-bearing motor in a vertical mounting position.

These key factors include:

  • Axial thrust load capacity of bearing supporting rotor weight
  • Rotor weight
  • Weight of output shaft attachments
  • Axial thrust from direct-connected driven equipment\
  • Bearing lubrication paths
  • Bearing lubricant retention
  • Shaft up or shaft down orientation
  • Ingress protection
  • Locking axial thrust bearing

Click here to read the rest of the article from Plant Services