Electrical Apparatus
The Magazine of Electrical &
Electronic Application & Maintenance

April 2001 Columns and Departments

Items in columns and departments from the April 2001 issue, Vol. 52, no. 4, (c) 2001 Barks Publications, Inc. See also April Table of Contents.

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• Editor's Comment Perspective on current and upcoming issues, by Horace B. Barks, Editor and Publisher This month - Selling products and services on the web.

• Let's Solve Your Problem The longest-running and one of our most popular features, Let's Solve Your Problem answers real questions posed by people in plants and service shops around the U.S. and abroad. Selected Q&A's from this column are available in our popular Let's Solve Your Problem books. This month's problems include: How to check grease compatibility... What's the meaning of 'load factor'? ... Dealing with asbestos in old motor windings ... How flexible are flexible couplings? ... To grease or not to grease ... Iron or steel for bearing housing busings? ... How valid is half-life sensing for insulation?  ... and more.

• Letters Letters from Steve Williams, President and CEO, ICC International, Maryville, TN ... John Santos, Vice President, Conneaut Industries, Inc., West Greenwich, CT ... Michael Oswalt, Senior Engineer, Pipeline Systems, Inc., Walnut Creek, CA ... Robert M. Stemmer, Jr., Stemmer Electric Co, Raphine, VA ... 

• Trade associations and professional societies News of non-profit organizations serving the electrical mechanical industries.  This month  - the Hydraulic Institute, OSHA, the National Coalition on Eronomics, the National Association of Manufacturers, The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, the Western Fire Chiefs Association, the American Society of Association Executives, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute ...a study fromthe Illuminating Engineering Society of North America ... Association people ... Coming events ... and more...

• Business Briefs This month - A.O. Smith Electrical Products Company has expanded production at its Juarez Mexico plant ... Europe will examine the GE Honeywell acquisition ... Solidstate Controls, Inc., opens Mexico office... Graybar combines Canadian operations...Export tax benefits are increased ... Hammond Manufacturing Transformer Group is now Hammond Power Solutions ... Motors and Gears, Inc. is now Kinetek, Inc. ... New facilities for SymCom, Inc., International Products Corp., and Tyco Electronics' demonstration center ... Certification briefs from Raychem Circuit Protection Division of Tyco and the International Organization for Standardization ... Financial brief from Cooper Industries, Active Power, Inc., FuelCell Energy, Inc., Baldor Electric... and more...

• Training Briefs Announcements of workshops, seminars and instructional materials - This month: Motor maintenance at Darby Electric, Programmable logic controllers course offered by Lewellyn Technology ... Power transmission multimedia primer, from Power Transmission Distributors Association ... Machine reliability courses from SKF USA, Inc., Appliance motor courses from Small Motors & Motion Association ... Workshops on motor and drive applications at Baldor Electric Co... and more

• Utility Briefs News of utility and power companies - This month: Detroit Edison, Sempra Energy Resources, FuelCell Energy, Inc., and a new book about utility deregulation by Steven Ferrey.

• Accounting for management This month -What managers need to know about inventory fraud - Protecting your company depends on having adequate accounting controls that go beyond physical safeguards. By William H. Wiersema, CPA, EA Contributing Editor.

• Safety and health in the workplace This month - Brief updates on past health and safety topics, including grapefruit, good housekeeping, annual physicals, biomagnetics, ladders and more.  By Richard B. Elsberry, EA Contributing Editor.

• New Books Recently published books, reviewed by our editors.  See also Books for the Plant and Shop from Barks Books, including titles from the editors of Electrical Apparatus.

• Standards briefs This month - News from the American National Standards Institute and the National Fire Protection Association. Edited by the Electrical Apparatus staff. 

• Names and Faces This month - Scott Prince, Lance Crow, Alberto Wallace, James Danze, Ron Willoughby, David Myers, Stanley Sussman, David Foster, Allan Cannon, Stanley Childs, Al Canady, Eric Toohey, Bruce Burroughs, Dough Terhune, Ken Carrawy, Warren Electric Group, Ralph West, David Wascom, David Cretella, Carl Lagerquist, Ronald Radtke, Thomas Hughes, James Haworth, Ian Ibbitson, Victor Wittmann, Kevin Kasmisikie, Vernon Dill, John Herron, Ric Irland, C. Joseph Incrocci, James Hudson, Walter Coleman, Robert Delgado, Perry Romano, George Miller, George Ockuly, Victor Zarzana...  Edited by Kevin Jones.

• Deaths - Gordon Gauthreaux, supervisor of purchasing, customer service, and winding at Scott Armature, Inc. 

• Calendar Briefs - Upcoming trade shows, symposia, and events, Edited by Kevin Jones.

• Electrical manager  A potpourri of news and features, selected and edited for maintenance and service managers. This issue - How the workplace may change in 2001 (company loyalty may make a comeback) ... When workers are fired ... E-mail overload ... Personal computing may get you fired..

• Electropix This issue - 21st century uses of power - robots, bananas, and self-inflating illuminated columns for trade shows ... 

• Literature Announcements of guides, catalogs, brochures, product specifications and other literature. This month - An industrial lighting guide from Lithonia Lighting .. a new electrical products catalog from Ideal Industries, Inc....  Pigalog catalog's leak and spill response products ... an industrial, laboratory and clean room ovens catalog from the Grieve Corp. ... an insulation resistance monitoring devices brochure from Meg-Alert... and more...

• Product briefs Announcements of new controls, drives & inverters, interconnections, measuring equipment, motors, gear motors, power transmission, safety equipment, test instruments, tools, and miscellaneous products. This month - products from the Kohler Co., Chromalox, Balmac, Inc., Baldor Electric, Ideal Industries, Dalloz Safety, Brady Signmark, Gardner Bender, and more...  

• Trilingual summary For our international readers, each month one featured topic is presented in French, Spanish and German. This month's topic (from "Glass Banding, both simple and complex"): Theorie und Praxis von Glasband / Théorie et pratique du bandage de verre / La Teoría y la Práctica de Cordaje a Vidrio  

• Classified Advertising Equipment, jobs, businesses, and services.

• Cy's Super Service, Motorhead and Generatorhead Comic strips featuring characters from our favorite cartoonists. 

• Direct and Current Breaking news of interest to the industry, from The Editors of Electrical Apparatus. This issue - The Post Office's threats to stop Saturday deliveries, after the Seattle earthquake, the likelihood of rolling blackouts, hybrid gas/electric automobiles, the high-voltage switchgear market, and new reductions in export taxes. 

• Advertising Index  An easy to use reference to the advertisements in Electrical Apparatus magazine.