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CONTENTS
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Diagnostic Tools
Electrical Troubleshooting
Quiz
Failure Mode Analysis
NEC in the Facility
Safety
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About This Newsletter
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This twice-a-month
e-newsletter is brought to you from the
publisher of EC&M magazine. MRO Insider addresses topics such
as:
Working with management and supervision
National Electrical Code® on the production floor
Safety procedures and programs
Troubleshooting techniques
Equipment maintenance and testing tips
Managing motors and generators
Trends in training and education
Managing energy use
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The designations "National Electrical Code" and "NEC" refer to the
National Electrical Code®, which is a registered
trademark of the National Fire Protection Association.
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Maintenance
Diagnostic Tools
When you use a wrench, your brain sees it as an
extension of your hand and you can actually feel the bolt through the
wrench instead of directly with your fingers. If not for this, your
wrench would constantly slip off the bolt.
When you drive a car, the brake pedal is like that wrench. You can
feel how much bite the brakes have, even though your only contact is
through that pedal. You really don’t want to be "feeling" other cars
on the road, which is why you look through your windows. As you
do this, you constantly compare what you see with what you expect. If
there’s a difference, you adjust speed or direction.
Using diagnostic tools is much like looking through your windows.
Instead of reading road signs and traffic, you look at such things as
voltages, waveforms, and temperature profiles. As with driving, you
can’t usefully interpret what you see unless you know what to expect.
To read more on this story, visit EC&M's Web
site.
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Repair
Electrical
Troubleshooting Quiz
Since the end of winter, there's been an epidemic of PC
workstation failures. The failed components are mostly power supplies
and motherboards.
The power monitor doesn't show any anomalies that could account for
this. However, from the repair records, you find:
- It's not affecting any particular brand or model.
- It's affecting only PCs in the administrative offices, not any PCs
on the factory floor.
Fortunately, the company keeps data on servers and not on individual
workstations. Therefore, there hasn't been a catastrophic data loss.
Nevertheless, the work interruptions and repair costs now have upper
management's attention, and they want this fixed. What should you do?
Visit EC&M's
Web site to see the answer.
Failure Mode
Analysis
Simple failure mode analysis consists of looking up the
description of a failure (that's the "mode" we're talking about) in a
chart and seeing the corresponding cause. For example, the chart might
show "burnt winding" and list "overheating" as one of the possible
causes.
However, this approach is often too simplistic. What caused the
overheating? Did unbalanced voltage do the deed? Perhaps misalignment
and vibration were the villains — the motor is drawing more current
to
do the same amount of useful work.
To read more on this story, visit EC&M's Web
site.
Operation
NEC in the
Facility
One potential solution to equipment failures and
operational anomalies attributable to electrical noise is the use of an
isolated ground. Don't reach for this as your first solution. Instead,
review the installation for conformance to NEC Article 250, Parts V and
VI.
A note of caution: Part VI talks about equipment "grounding" when it
should say "bonding." Article 100 defines "grounding" as connecting to
the earth and bonding as establishing electrical continuity. These are
entirely different methods with entirely different objectives. They are
not interchangeable. If you apply Part VI without recognizing the
Article 100 conflict, you'll ensure that your equipment has noise
problems. An isolated ground won't solve problems that arise from that
particular cause.
Safety
One way personal protective equipment (PPE) differs
from
other kinds of protective equipment is that it's personally for you.
Contrast a railing (for everyone) with a harness (for you).
Many people think another way PPE differs from general protection is
that you are responsible for inspecting your PPE and someone else is
responsible for inspecting general protective equipment. This kind of
thinking can result in the "someone will take care of it" danger zone.
To read more on this story, visit EC&M's Web
site.
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