Shantel Rogers, a former student at Eisenhower High School and Richland Community College, has received a $1,000 scholarship to help cover educational related expenses for the upcoming school year. She will be studying business at Millikin University. 

“Winning this scholarship means confirmation, for me.” Rogers went on to add, “Life has a way of switching our paths in unexpected ways. In these transitional periods we can doubt the work we’re putting in and feel it’s in vain. Winning this scholarship has shown me that no matter what may be in front of me, if I stay true to myself and keep pushing forward, things will work for my good.”

Her long term career goals have changed since the onset of COVID 19. Initially her goal was to climb the corporate ladder in a good company. However, COVID and the changes it brought to the workspace sparked her entrepreneurial spirit. Her goal after college is to build her own company that great people want to climb the corporate ladder at.

The Claud Thompson Decatur Industrial Electric Scholarship
This scholarship assists students seeking a career in business through the Tabor School of Business (PACE included) at Millikin University or students pursuing engineering technology degrees at Richland Community College. Additional criteria online includes financial need and students who are self-driven and leadership-oriented with a record of community service. High school seniors and college students may apply for the scholarship on the Community Foundation of Macon County website at www.endowdecatur.org. 

To find out more about our founder, click here. 

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

Do you know the number of allowed starts in one hour. For NEMA A and B motors operating within allowed variations of voltage and frequency, there are actually three categories related to starts, but two of those categories are fairly easy to apply. For this tip we will be focusing on the two that are easy to apply:

1. Maximum number of starts per hour
2. Minimum rest (off time) between starts

Let’s start with two general thumb rules:

• The smaller the horse power (HP), the more starts allowed per hour
• The slower the motor (higher # of poles), the more starts allowed per hour 

A 10 HP 2 pole motor is allowed 6.2 starts per hour with a 92 seconds off time before the next start. A 10 HP 6 pole motor is allowed 14.2 starts per hour with a 41 seconds off time before the next start. That’s more than twice the number of starts and less than half the off time when going from a 2 pole to a 6 pole motor. For a larger 250 HP 2 pole motor you are only allowed 1.8 starts per hour with a 1000 seconds off time. Change that to a 250 HP 6 pole motor and you get 4.2 starts per hour with a 440 seconds off time. According to NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturer Association), the inertia of the load, motor HP, and speed (# of poles) are the determining variables. The extreme heating that occurs during startup demands that you stay within these start guidelines to prevent premature damage and reduced life expectancy for your electric motors. So not only should you track the lifetime starts of your electric motor, but also track the number of starts and start times per hour.

Why do we measure the insulation resistance of a motor winding? Because the resistance measurement indicates the ability of the insulation to resist the passage of electricity from coil to coil or to the frame of the motor. High resistance above the recommended IEEE minimum usually indicates a good winding, while low resistance may indicate the winding is dirty or wet. When performing insulation resistance tests, it is important to verify your leads are connected at the proper location and that you have recorded the temperature of the windings under test; insulation resistance varies with winding temperature. In MCEGold, if after testing you need to change the temperature, open the test in Test History, double click on the temperature of the test, enter the correct winding temperature, and click Change Temperature. The resistance test results will be recalculated with the proper temperature and ensure you have collected and saved accurate data to the asset test history.