One of the more common questions asked by reliability workers with regard to Electric Motor Testing (EMT) is the type of electric motors that can benefit from condition monitoring testing. Obviously, various industries employ different sizes and types of motors. Some facilities would consider a 25HP motor to be enormous, while others have 250HP plus higher motors, and still, other facilities might only employ fractional horsepower motors. Sometimes overlooked as a candidate for EMT inspection are servos and stepper motors.

My job is quite fun. I get to spend time with a new group of people with every class, talk about something I enjoy immensely, and in a lot of cases I get to help folks even after training. If you’ve taken a class from me, you’ve heard me encourage you to call if you have questions. Often, I learn by figuring out answers to questions people ask. In some cases, the calls I get lead me to write a blog about that topic of discussion…, you know…sometimes…

In our Level I Thermographic Applications Course we mention that there are imager settings that cannot be changed after an image is saved. As an instructor, I tend to focus on what I consider the Big Three; Focus, Range, and Perspective (Composition). Those are important for obvious reasons. No one wants a poorly focused image, nor one with areas of heat that can’t be measured, or for areas to be left out.  But there’s another setting that can’t be changed that’s mentioned in the course manual that I have been guilty of not mentioning. Anyone know which one?

When I was growing up, Dad was good about teaching me all the things a young man would benefit from knowing. The usual stuff; baiting a hook to fish, how to change a car tire, that kind of thing. Every once in awhile, he would show me something and preface it with “hey, lemme show ya this ol’ army trick”. I was a teenager before I learned that my dad never spent a day in the Army. Apparently, I took things pretty literal as a kid.

Quand je considère l’étendue de la technologie d’aujourd'hui, je me rends de plus en plus compte des années qui passent. Les choses ont tellement évolué et beaucoup de ces développements dont on s’aperçoit ces jours-ci se sont vite produit. Je me souviens en lisant autrefois les bandes dessinées de Dick Tracy, je trouvais le concept d'une radio-montre drôlement improbable. Cependant, la semaine dernière ma femme a acheté une Apple Watch, et maintenant fait des appels et envoie des textos à partir de ce petit appareil.

The title of this blog is in reference to the movie Highlander. You might not have heard of it since I don’t think it did well at the box office. Long story short, there are a group of immortals who must battle each another because there can be only one immortal, and that remaining immortal will receive “The Prize”. Therefore, they battle one another until only one remains. But I’m not writing here to talk about immortals, I’m here to talk about motors, specifically the testing of them.

People may consider the application of thermography for building inspections to be something for geographic areas where the temperatures get very low. I live in the Deep South, and when I mention building inspections to the folks around here, they respond with “why would you do that here? It doesn’t get that cold”. While up in New England, where our corporate office is located, heat loss is a great concern, down here in hot and humid Georgia heat gain is an issue.

One of the best things about Spring each year is the feeling of renewal. Dormant trees begin to bloom, the grass goes from sadly brown to fresh, healthy-looking green. The weather warms up, which is more of a blessing in some parts of the country than others. Along with that warming though we sometimes get conditions that are less than pleasant; like storms.

Insulation testing is by far the most important testing that you may perform on electric motor and motor circuits. There are several different tests and variations of some of those tests. One of the tests that is available is Step Voltage testing.

When I consider the availability of technology today, I start to feel every day of my age. Things have come so far, and much of the change we’re seeing these days has come quickly. I remember reading the Dick Tracy comics and finding the concept of a two-way wrist radio ridiculously unlikely. Last weekend however, my wife bought an Apple watch and she can call and text from that little device.