Archives for January 2018

Meet Terry Cox, Applications and A.M.P Specialist

I’m sure the first thing you are wondering is “What is an A.M.P Specialist?” Terry oversees our asset management program for customers, meaning their equipment that is stored and maintained at our facility. Terry Cox

Born and raised in Decatur, Terry has been a member of our team for over a decade. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Millikin University and previously worked for Morgan Products, LTD.

Terry does a fantastic job assisting our customers not only with the AMP program but also with new motor sales.

Outside of work Terry enjoys playing musical instruments, collecting and restoring sports cars, boating, skiing, boat racing and ice boating.

6 Points of Seal Failure and How to Avoid Them

Use these best practices to get the most from component parts

by Larry Castleman

January 2, 2018

It’s no secret that seals play a critical role in ensuring proper function of rotary systems, but designers may not be aware of just how many factors can affect seal performance. The good news is that every factor can be mitigated to a significant degree, greatly reducing the risk of seal failure.

By fully understanding the importance of installation, the potential for contamination, the amount of friction within the system, the mating surfaces involved, the shaft dynamics and the fluid conditions, designers can select a seal that will function for the maximum time possible. We’ll examine each factor in detail.

Installation

A seal’s lip is key to making sure seal wear is low. The right amount of lubricant under the lip keeps friction/wear low without resulting in a leak. Today’s sophisticated seal lips are designed to do just that, but this functionality adds a degree of complication to installation.

First, seal lips (whether rubber or polytetrafluoroethylene [PTFE]) tend to be fragile.

If the geometry of the seal’s installation is not ideal, the seal lip may be damaged or even turned inside out during installation.

Click here to continue reading the full article online.

Motor Reliability Commitment for the New Year

January offers a fresh start for a new year of commitments and why not commit to a year of best practices for your motor reliability. All of the January tips will focus on best practice topics related to your electric motors, starting with Reliability.

From industry expert Ramesh Gulati’s book Maintenance Best Practices the following are some quantitative numbers to compare to your facilities performance as a benchmark for reliability best practices:

Planned maintenance should be greater than 85% of maintenance.
Unscheduled (reactive) maintenance should be less than 10%.
Preventive maintenance (PM) should be conducted within +/- 10% of schedule to be in compliance.
Each hour of PM or condition based maintenance (CBM) should yield .5 to 2 hours of corrective maintenance (PM effectiveness, PM yield).

To purchase a copy of Ramesh Gulati’s book go to:

https://www.amazon.com/Maintenance-Best-Practices-Ramesh-Gulati/dp/0831134348/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448288719&sr=8-1&keywords=ramesh+gulati

Phone Call to Decatur Industrial Reliability Specialist Saves Generating Plant $30,000+

Field Service Decatur Industrial Electric

When you hear “account manager” you most likely think sales. At Decatur Industrial, an account manager is so much more than a sales person. Our Account Managers are Reliability Specialists and can help provide technical support and application expertise.

A power generation facility was pulling a 4000 HP fan motor in order to remove a coupling hub worth over $30,000 from the motor’s shaft to be installed on their spare. Removing these couplings has always proved a challenge due to the .011” interference fit between the motor shaft and coupling bore. The attempt by the plant to remove the coupling was again unsuccessful. The Reliability Maintenance Supervisor decided to reach out to Kent Henry, D.I.E. Reliability Specialist, for knowledge support with this particular situation.

Once on-site, Kent met with the Supervisor and the plant technicians to review how they initially approached the project. They had set up the hydraulic input to the coupling which was intended to expand the coupling for removal per the OEM training. From that information, we formulated a new plan we felt would be successful and included two critical adjustments:

We changed the hydraulic system oil weight to provide more lubricity between the shaft and coupling hub bore.
Rather than applying abrupt hydraulic pressure up to 18,000 psi to the coupling hydraulic ports and expecting the coupling to move, we used reduce pressure planning to apply this force for a longer period of time.

As it turned out, about 70% of that maximum pressure was all that needed to be applied hydraulically to expand and lubricate the coupling hub. Through our method, the customer saved potential damage to the $30,000 coupling, the motor shaft, and we saved them the time of having to send out to a repair facility.

Employee Spotlight: Andrew Eldred

This month we introduce you to Andrew!

He has been with Decatur Industrial Electric since 2011. He started out as a parts washer, then worked with field services. Now, he balances approximately 90% of the equipment for the shop.
He feels good knowing the company entrusts him with one of the most critical aspects of ensuring a motor runs correctly in service.

Andrew and his wife have three boys. When he isn’t at work he enjoys spending time with his family and doing constructive/creative things such as remodeling his home.