Electric Motor Testing – High Resistance to Change
It was 30 years ago that my 20-year career in the US Naval Submarine Service led me to a job in Tampa, Florida. Little did I know that I was on a career path in an emerging technology. A path that would outrage some in the electric motor manufacturing and repair industries. A path for a technology that would provide significant maintenance capabilities for any commercial facility that had critical electric motors. It was both an exciting and intimidating time.
Increased Thermal Conductivity through Grouted Cells can Create Patterns
Using IR to verify construction details of commercial facilities is another use of the technology. With the right conditions, thermography can be successfully used to verify placement of reinforcement grout in concrete masonry unit (CMU) walls.
Extending our Camera’s Capabilities in Extreme Conditions
Just because your camera has a very high or very low temperature range capabilities does not mean your camera will operate in those conditions. We must distinguish between the camera’s temperature range capabilities and its operating environment temperature capabilities. The cameras’ range is defined as: “the preset range of temperatures that can be viewed and/or measured”. Some cameras have a single preset range of temperatures and others have two or more presets that must be appropriately selected by the operator.
Operation 2024
The Snell Group kicked off the year with a long-time customer in Camden, NJ. Our customer has a shutdown every January for 2 weeks. As with any company, shutdowns are critical to their operations to get things fixed and ready for the next production cycle. It takes months of preparation from many different vendors and operations within the company. Shutdowns can create chaos but if planned right, organized chaos. For The Snell Group we make it easy for our customers by staying in constant contact up to and throughout our time onsite.
Don’t have Tunnel Vision while Using your Camera!
One of the benefits of holding an onsite thermography course is that we can customize the hands-on sessions so that facility can practice the newly acquired knowledge in field conditions. During these exercises, I have often seen a typical, yet potentially devastating, novice thermographer mistake. Pointing to make a point.
Looking at a Signal in the Frequency Domain
Many of the modern motor testers today utilize a spectral analysis tool known as a Fast Fourier Transform or FFT for short. When reading up on motor test theory, this is a topic that is mentioned often and repeated almost as often, but when pressed for an explanation many folks find themselves scratching their heads. They’ve seen an FFT on their tester, and probably know how to interpret the data it provides but may still be at a loss as to how it’s derived.
Finding a Small Temperature Difference during Buildings Inspections
Building inspections are considered the most difficult application for a Thermographer to accomplish. In-experienced Thermographers when first conducting home and building inspections frequently have considerable difficulty conducting these inspections. This inexperience often leads to misinterpreting thermal patterns or outright missing problems.
Welcome Jeremy Kays!
Operation 2024
The Snell Group is excited to announce that Jeremy Kays has come on board, in the position of VP of Global Operations. We will be expanding our team of experts and support in the reliability sector. Jeremy’s focus will be to grow the service department and he will be writing about the extensive line of services that The Snell Group offers in his new monthly blog. Each month you’ll be able to read a little more about his reliability journey!
Control Transformers and Electric Motor Testing
When performing energized electric motor testing on medium and high voltage systems, it is necessary to acquire data from potential and current transformers.