Decatur Industrial Electric

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Archives for 2024

Routine Preventative Maintenance Saves Customer over $30,000

We get it. Preventative maintenance is costly – both in manpower and hard dollars. However, the cost of NOT doing it can be extremely more expensive.

During a scheduled preventative maintenance call at a customer site, a Decatur Industrial technician was inspecting a DC motor for brush wear, condition of the brush springs, and the state of the commutator. The commutator had extensive wear in the brush path. The brushes facilitate the flow of current into the armature so when excessive wear occurs, the motor has a more difficult time maintaining speed and output.

The commutator had a row that was not being used so we removed the spacer to adjust the brush holders onto a new brush path. This allowed the customer to continue using the motor and prevent it being pulled for reconditioning at a cost of $35,000.

Decatur Industrial Electric Celebrates 1,000 Days Lost-Time Injury Free!

Our Company Vision is to be the most admired and respected Company by our team members, customers, stockholders, and the communities we serve and value.  In alignment with our Vision, I want our workplace to be the safest place we are at today and for tomorrow outside of our home. We have proven it can be! 

Every day at D.I.E. we walk by this sign and recognize our achievement during our Daily Meeting.

Zero Lost Time is our goal & expectation we have for ourselves. Having a goal of any kind is a fun target that has a purpose with achievement. With Employee Health & Safety, there’s not an end date, rather, it’s a result. An everyday result of hard work and purposeful teamwork.  

Our entire team values safety practices and concepts because they allow them to work and live better. Safety is important not because employees are being supervised, or because they must follow safety protocol for their job, but because employees truly understand the personal benefit those safety practices deliver them.

Being safe, whether at work or elsewhere, must be intentional. We are all accountable for great performance, whether safety, sustainability, quality, or production. That’s called job security! I’m proud of our team for its wonderful achievement! 

  • Trent Thompson, President of Decatur Industrial Electric

Keeping an “EYE” on Your Motor: Part 1 Rotor

With the release of the PdMAEYE® permanently installed electric motor test system we look forward to sharing success stories from the field as our customers add this new technology to the MCEMAX® for an optimal electric motor reliability program.

The first success story comes from the Pipeline Industry. The United States has over 300,000 miles of pipeline running from coast to coast. In the world, estimates are around 1.18 million kilometers of pipeline. Imagine the resources and personnel required to visit and test every pumping station along these pipelines. Now imagine a more efficient use of these resources and personnel to prioritize the site visits if you had remote early indications of a developing anomaly. Allowing the analysts to focus on the problem motors early, and returning these motors to a reliable productive condition makes a lot of sense.

While reviewing data on a critical pipeline motor from the comfort of an air-conditioned office, the motor analyst noticed elevated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to rotor health. Left unattended rotor anomalies can cause secondary damage to nearby laminations, rotor bars, and worse case the stator windings. Due to the frequent starts and stops experienced by this motor during normal operations and knowing that In-Rush/Start-Ups increase the rate of failure for rotor cage faults, the severity was elevated, and planning initiated for a scheduled deeper inspection.

To see details and the conclusion of this case study visit the PdMA YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIk7A8fZRTo