Personal History
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I have had a long acquaintance with forensic engineering, as problem-solving
has been high on my list of interests. After receiving my BSEE,
worked in a steel mill, which was a good way to get hands-on experience,
and the pay was comparatively good for the time. Out at the roundhouse
where they serviced diesel-locomotives, a compressor had been causing numerous
problems, which task was often assigned to new test engineers to solve.
Carried a portable instruments out to the roundhouse, and was given a courteous,
but perfunctory greeting ( "Here's another one, when are they going to
fix the problem?").
The 30-40 HP compressor motor was powered by a 240 V DC line fed from
a motor-generator set located one-quarter mile away. The compressor motor
had an extremely long accelerating period, with starting resistors and
brushes constantly burning up, continually needing maintenance. I talked
to the shop foreman who had been there some 25 years, and he showed
me the stack of starting resistors they had on hand, each mounted on a
4" x 18" board, easy to stick in when a replacement was needed.
I inserted a calibrated shunt into the circuit, and connected a recording
ammeter, carefully installing them so I wouldn't screw up badly.
The motor started when the system air pressure dropped,. I observed
the starting several times, but being fresh out of school by 5 months,
I was not really certain of the significance of the high current and sharp
voltage drop measurements. At best, I would record them, and bring them
to one of the two senior test men who had some 20 years experience at the
mill.
From my DC classes and some recent experience, I knew that resistors
were inserted to reduce the starting current to a value of 200% to 250%
of full load current, and once up to speed, the resistors were bypassed.
What I was measuring was 300 % or more. Glancing behind the
compressor, I noticed that the manufacturer had provided a multi-color
graphic simplified schematic for the operation of the motor. Noting
that four (4) resistors were in the simplified diagram, I asked the shop
foreman why they changed from a quantity of four to a quantity of three
now being used for starting. He told me that they had never used
four resistors in series.
This sounded too good to be true, but I convinced the shop foreman that
the graphic had to have some meaning, and he should try a fourth resistor.
Because the resistors were already mounted, it was easy to insert
the fourth resistor. The result was that the during the next start,
the voltage drop and current were both less.. .Lucky maybe, but observation
is very important in problem-solving. In response to an editor, I
prepared an article on this application, on which he based Story
No. 399 "The Writing on the Wall" by Marmaduke, a pseudonym of the late
Steve Elonka, published in Power magazine, March 1983. His article
was more entertaining.
I left the steel mill for Pioneer Service & Engineering which was
involved in the design of generating stations and substations. Here
I became intrigued with a career-long interest in protection. Studied
protective relaying at evening classes.. Joined Panellit, a Skokie
IL firm active in the annunciator and automation fields. While
completing my MSEE program, handled design of control boards, consoles,
relay & control boards, and controls and instrumentation, and protective
devices included on the boards, and became Operations Manager.
Later held management positions at Control Data Corporation, Emerson Electric,
and McKee Automation.
I felt a strong urge to return to engineering, and joined Bechtel in
Vernon, CA. The move was fruitful, because of a great demand for
engineers in industrial and power fields. Became involved in developing
standards for protection, especially for 480 V power systems which were
being inundated with new products for grounding and ground fault
protection. The National Electric Code was being changed, and many
new requirements for protection needed to be analyzed. International
projects were also blooming, and engineers sent overseas required preparation
and support from the home technical staff. While many of the projects
were large nuclear generating units, there were many industrial projects
for cement and food industries, as well as government works. A common
thread could be seen: power system analysis, protection, relay settings,
and liaison with field startup to complement the construction, procurement,
and project management.
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