Acme Armature Works Inc.

By Jeff Pederson – Pedal Down Promotions

In an effort to expand their capabilities to address various unique and challenging rotor balancing issues, Acme Armature Works Inc. Owner Chad Bahrs and Service Technician Shane Krieski completed a Schenck Educational Services Rotor Balancing Workshop III training seminar in Chicago, Ill. on April 21, 2017.

The day-long workshop was presented in an open-forum format, during which participants could review basic electric motor balancing principles, improve rotor balancing skills and address specific application challenges.

“The class was an extension of the basic rotor balancing class,” Bahrs said. “It was more advanced and covered quite a bit of things that are not taught in the basic class. It began with an introductory slide show and an overview of different rotor configurations. From there, it got into a lot of specific questions that people had about their specific balancing machines and difficult situations they’ve encountered.”

According to Bahrs, the seminar placed a heavy emphasis on specialized cases.

“The bulk of the instruction was on how to address different and unique rotor configurations in one or two planes to improve unbalance reduction ratio and plane separation,” Bahrs said. “We learned a lot of different ways to address specialty balancing and out-of-the-ordinary situations, which made the course very useful for us because these are things that we deal with in our shop on occasion.”

The workshop gave Bahrs a valuable opportunity to gain additional knowledge based on the experiences of other repair technicians in the electric motor repair field.

“It was an interesting experience because we were able to learn a lot from everyone else that was in the class,” Bahrs said. “We got to learn about issues other people are having and we got to see how other people in our field do things. It was very hands-on and directed by the questions of the class participants, which made it a bit different than some of the other training workshops I’ve attended over the years.”

Bahrs is eager to pass along the concepts learned during the workshop to better assist Acme’s loyal and expanding customer base.

“These training experiences are important because they help us to stay sharp and responsive to the needs of our customers

“These training experiences are important because they help us to stay sharp and responsive to the needs of our customers,” Bahrs said. “We are always looking for different ways to improve the repair services we offer and this seminar helped a great deal to hone our rotor balancing capabilities.”

For more information or to request service with Acme Armature Works Inc., email [email protected], call the 24-hour service line at 920-452-3389 or visit www.acmearmature.com.

By Jeff Pederson – Pedal Down Promotions

Restoring a malfunctioning electric motor to working condition while understanding the root cause of the failure are essential components of the repair process carried out each day at Acme Armature Works Inc. in Sheboygan, Wis.

Acme Armature Works Inc. Owner Chad Bahrs places a high standard on not only repairing each motor, but also diving down into the deep complexities of each system to gain a clear picture of the reason for each failure.

That is why Bahrs and Acme Armature Works Inc. Repair Technician Shane Krieski attended an Electrical Apparatus Service Association (EASA) Root Cause Failure Analysis Certification course in Minneapolis, Minn. this past April.

The full-day course placed a heavy emphasis on troubleshooting a wide range of electric motor failure scenarios to help reduce the length of the repair process and aid in communicating with customers to avoid repeated failures in the future.

“You can rebuild a motor or electro-mechanical device and get it back to working order without really understanding why it failed in the first place,” Bahrs said. “You are missing out on a big part of the process if you don’t examine the root cause. For us, it is very important to get a handle on why something failed so we can reduce downtime for customers, who are depending on these machines for their businesses to be profitable.”

The course covered root cause methodology, while examining the details of bearing, shaft, stator, rotor, mechanical, DC motor and accessory failures.

No matter what type of failure, Bahrs says reporting the cause of the malfunction to customers is standard practice at Acme Armature Works Inc.

“Downtime can really hurt a business and we want to cut into that as much as we can for our customers,” he said. “Most of the repair work we get are rush jobs and our customers depend on us to get a motor up and running as soon as possible, so they can meet their demand. One of the ways to potentially reduce downtown is to understand the root cause and then report that root cause to our customers, who can in turn note that for the future and possible do some preventative maintenance to keep it from happening over and over.”

Bahrs says his customers are typically thankful to learn of the root cause of motor failures.

“Our customer like the fact that we go that extra mile and communicate the root cause of failure to them for each job,” he said. “They are very appreciative of the explanation we give them because in many cases it helps them to plan and hopefully reduces the potential of having the same repeated failure.”

For more information or to request service with Acme Armature Works Inc,, email [email protected], call the 24-hour service line at 920-452-3389 or visit  www.acmearmature.com.