The industry has been asking and wanting a certification program for Electrical Motor Testing (EMT) for years. Well it's here, The Snell Group is proudly announcing EMT certification for the USA. As an independent and vendor neutral company we feel we are the right venue for this task. The Snell Group is rolling out 5 different certifications because it's not as simple as Level 1, 2, or 3. Electric Motor Testing encompasses multiple technologies with various instruments of differing testing methods and capabilities, a one-size fits all Certification path will not work effectively.

With Memorial Day kicking off the summer, I would like to thank all of the Snell Employees that have served our great country, we appreciate your service and for protecting our freedoms.

Like many other types of inspections, conditions are among the factors that can make or break a successful endeavor. It’s my opinion that in Building inspections the conditions are more of a factor since there are so many elements to consider. The intent here is not to discourage inspections of buildings, but to educate, edify, and inform so that you can make the most of your efforts. Whether inspecting indoors or outdoors, there are many conditions to consider. Let’s take a look at them.

At the Snell Group we are improving our services for our customers. In April we started using a new Infrared Software for reporting to help us keep track of our customers assets. This new software gives us an advantage over our competitors, it helps us keep track of bad actors, keeps track of multiple sites under one location and speeds up our reporting time.

My journeys this month have taken me up and down the West Coast performing thermography on electrical systems plus an emergency run to a manufacturing facility.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!