Electrical Apparatus
The Magazine of Electrical &
Electronic Application & Maintenance

December 2001 Columns and Departments

Items in columns and departments from the December 2001 issue, Vol. 52, no. 10, © 2001 Barks Publications, Inc. See also December 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 - The best of times in the worst of times - thoughts on the EIC/EMCW Expo ... In Canada: matching the shop to its customers ... With this issue, the 2002 EMBR ... It's puzzle time again!   ... Coming up in the next issues ...

• 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: Does burnout affect motor core metallurgy? ... How to interpret motor current readings? ... Where to locate retrofit heat sensors ... The cut-down mounting bolt: is it a bad choice?  ... What does inverter duty really mean?  ... Is rotor lamination shorting a problem? ...  and more

• Letters  This month's letters are from John Day, D&D Electric Motor Service, Moses Lake, Washington .. Ernest Wead, California Electric Company ... James F. Waiwriht, Inspector, Hartford Steam Boiler, Altoona, PA ... Ross Taylor, P.E., Supervisor Distribution Engineering, Avista Utilities, Spokane, WA.  

• Trade associations and professional societies News of non-profit organizations serving the electrical mechanical industries.  This month  - EPRI opens Belgian office ... US Housing Department chooses NFPA standards ... Improve environment and quality of life ... AFE chapter returns to paper ... NEMA guide to equipment importing and exporting .. PEARL recognizes members who passed site inspection .. Civil engineers honor Hoover Dam .. Association People William Sutton, Clifford Rees Jr,  Arnold Savolainen, Irvin Moeller, Pamela Horner, Jeff Hoover and Thomas Naber ... Coming meetings of the National Association of Wholesalers-Distributors, Professional Electrical Apparatus Recycles Leagues and International Electrical Testing Association ...  and more

• Business Briefs Business news and announcements, including financial briefs, certification achievements, and distribution news.  This month - Walker Scientific and LDJ Electronics merge ... Rockwell Automation in university partnership ... Tool doniation to NY Fire Department by Greenlee Textron ... Motor Specialty Inc. acquires traction drives line from Graham Transmission .. RTD Co bought by a management team ... A.O. Smith earns power plant fan contract ... Volland certified as Reliance service provider ... Financial briefs .. Distributors briefs ..  and more

• Training Briefs Announcements of workshops, seminars and instructional materials, and our Training Index, listing program topics featured in Training Briefs in the past year - This month: Plant management, electrical safety, Refrigeration service, digital multimeters, power quality ... and more

• Accounting for management This month - Making sense of economic data  By Wiliam H. Wiersema, CPA, EA Contributing Editor.

• Safety and health in the workplace This month - Contact dermatitis  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  ...  Edited by the Electrical Apparatus staff. 

• Names and Faces This month -Craig VanDerveer, Gregg Zimmerman, Mike Jefferson, Walter Kaihatu, John LaMontagne, Tom Adelman, James Gust, Richard Brown, Christopher Bailey, and more...Edited by Kevin Jones.

• Deaths  

• Calendar Briefs - Upcoming trade shows, symposia, and events, from December 2001 through June 2002 ... Edited by Kevin Jones.

• Electropix This issue  -The 2002 NEC ... EIC/EMCW Expo  ...  and more

• Literature Announcements of guides, catalogs, brochures, product specifications and other literature. This issue - Baumer Electric's sensor catalog ... Associated Research's "The Operator's Guide to Electrical Product Safety Testing" ... Lincoln Motor's catalog of industrial and commercial A-C motors ... Bahco Tools' catalog of industrial/heavy maintenance tools ... Gardner Bender's electrical products and accessories line ... General Electric's literature describing the power circuit breaker core exhange program ... and more

• Product briefs Announcements of Controls ...Interconnections ... Power Quality .. Switching Devices ... Software ...  Power Transmission ... Test Instruments and more

• Trilingual summary For our international readers, each month one featured topic is presented in French, Spanish and German.

• Puzzles   Puzzles you and your colleagues can solve for fun and, if your answers are correct, for recognition in Electrical Apparatus. This month features winners Tony Daigle, Gary Duerhoff, Douglas McClung, Jim McFarlane, Ralph Rundell, Tyler Stanley, Dan Shapekahn, Bert Steck, Rod Vellenoweth, and Chris Waak ... and a new brainteaser, "Casey's Ground."  by Lillian Nielsen, Special Correspondent  

• Classified Advertising Equipment, jobs, businesses, business opportunities 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 social security wage base rises ... IRS changes ... Foreign regulations that influence United States exports ... Electronic Filing of 2001 Forms W-3/W-2 ... Americans are working longer than ever ... Nevada leads in planned solar power systems ... the US Navy leads federal agencies in energy use....  

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

• Say It Right By Richard L. Nailen, P.E.,  Contributing Editor. This month ..Be specific about starting conditions - and avoid terms for which industry standards provide no definitions ...  

• Utility Briefs  - News of utility and power companies.  .. Edited by Kevin Jones, EA Senior Editor

• Electrical manager  A potpourri of news and features, selected and edited for maintenance and service managers.  This month: Lending your ear to employees ...  How to manage in a national crisis ... Watching out for suspicious mail ... "Get a Life" test for busy entrepreneurs ... Laying off workers in an economic recession ...