Maintenance electricians

[jimbo123]

I split my time between two jobs working with a electrical contractor [my cousins. weekends] and in a maintenance department doing electric work.
To be a good maintenance electrician what are some of the duties of that type of job besides making repairs. I beleve i might end up doing that type of work. What are some of the areas of the field you electricians need to be strong in to be successfull?

 

[realolman]

one man's maintenance electrician is changing light bulbs.

the next man's maintenance electrician is trying to figure out why VFDs make a nearby chart recorder go nuts.

Depends what you do.

 

[CONTROL FREQ]

Learn the math. Memorize the formulas. You may not think it will be used very often, but I use tons of math every day. You will come to understand why the 'old timers' preach it so vigorously. You are helpless without it.

 

[zog]

Learn the math. Memorize the formulas. You may not think it will be used very often, but I use tons of math every day. You will come to understand why the 'old timers' preach it so vigorously. You are helpless without it.

I spent 15 years of my life training maintenence electricians at large companies, and I can tell you there is a direct corelation to the ones that are good and the ones that know the theory/math.

Read the maintnence manuals for the equipment you have, most of the people I trained had never read the manuals for equipment they had been responsible for 20+ years.

Get some good training

Be familiar with the NFPA 70B, it is basically the maintnence bible for electrical equipment.

 

[hockeyoligist2]

Learn to troubleshoot and repair mechanical problems. A lot of the "electrical" problems in maintenance are actually mechanical.

 

[iwire]

Learn to troubleshoot and repair mechanical problems. A lot of the "electrical" problems in maintenance are actually mechanical.

I agree.

I also say learn as much about the entire process or operation at the facility you are working as you can. It is much easier to troubleshoot if you know about more than the wiring end of things.

When you have down time use that time to read manuals of the equipment you work on, or pester the other trades about 'Why is this done like this?' or 'How does this work?'

For instance I have leaned quite a bit about pneumatics, hydraulics, mechanical, refrigeration etc. all of it helps for troubleshooting.

 

[CONTROL FREQ]

I couldn't agree more. That was my first post ever (about the math). But after reading ZOG's post, I thought about the MOST important thing AND most useful tool for any industrial electrician... YOU MUST ALWAYS learn the sequence of operation. It is priceless to know 'what was the last thing the machine did correctly?' AND 'what should it have done next?' then you can figure out why it didn't. If you are new at a place and you don't know the sequence, ASK THE OPERATOR. Operators are usually an asset NOT a liability. It's the equivalent of being in a house for the first time---you can wander aimlessly about, looking for the bathroom....OR you can ask the person who LIVES there.

best of luck, I hope this might help you in some way.

 

[Little Bill]

Find a good on-line translator because some equipment is foreign made and sometimes their manuals are in the foreign language or not translated very well. I learned a lot of French and Italian terms having to work on equipment made in those countries. Some through on-line translations, and a lot through years of working on them and figuring them out on my own. Learn the needed parts and keep them on hand, sometimes it takes a while to get them.

 

[Electric-Light]

If you want to be successful at that facility, get acquainted with the facility especially parts that is not covered in general education.

 

[hurk27]

I will second the "learn the sequence of operation" statement, to add to what others have said, learn how to read prints, wiring diagrams, one line schematics, ladder diagrams, and how to trouble shoot from them, each and every plant will be different and equipment in each and every plant will be different, over the years I have worked industrial at many different plants from aluminum extrusion, to plants the produce non-woven fiber products, and a few iron and steel products plants, each and every one was a whole new learning curve for me.

Always go into a job like this as a fresh new experience, keep an open mind, because you will see stuff you have never seen before, and up most keep safety always in your mind.

 

[wiigelec]

To be a good maintenance electrician what are some of the duties of that type of job besides making repairs.

Production needs it running NOW and parts are not available. An essential skill is striking a balance between keeping things running and not being a total hack...

 

[K8MHZ]

Production needs it running NOW and parts are not available. An essential skill is striking a balance between keeping things running and not being a total hack...

All while contemplating a gruesome demise for production managers.

I did maintenance in a die cast foundry for a couple years and worst part about the job was being hassled by the production foremen and managers. They will insist that you do things unsafe in order to get production running. They can be relentless, expecting you to do several things at once, cutting corners and having blatant disregard for anything other than getting parts out the door. I have had them force techs to get machines running even though they knew the parts were bad and would come back. It's all about the numbers to them. I even had one take a cut off wheel to the lock on a locked out machine.

I agree with learning other realms. I have training in hydraulics and pneumatics. You at least have to know how to read a hydraulic diagram.

Troubleshooting isn't for everyone. Some people love it and are good at it, while others will never be good at it and hate it. There is a certain kind of patience needed. To me, (I like it) it's like playing a game of chess, especially when I have to reverse engineer something I have never worked on before. Over the years I have developed a very orderly manner in which to solve problems. Guessing gets you nowhere.

I didn't see this mentioned, but it is important to know your tools and test equipment. If you don't know why your DVOM indicates 120 volts and your solenoid tester shows nothing on the same circuit when it happens, you aren't ready to get paid to troubleshoot electrical problems. You need to know your test equipment literally inside and out.

You will need to develop a rapport with the operators of the machinery. They can make or break a troubleshooter in a production environment. A certain amount of psychology is involved. You need to know what to listen to and what to ignore.

I wish you luck.

 

[CONTROL FREQ]

All while contemplating a gruesome demise for production managers.

I did maintenance in a die cast foundry for a couple years and worst part about the job was being hassled by the production foremen and managers. They will insist that you do things unsafe in order to get production running. They can be relentless, expecting you to do several things at once, cutting corners and having blatant disregard for anything other than getting parts out the door. I have had them force techs to get machines running even though they knew the parts were bad and would come back. It's all about the numbers to them. I even had one take a cut off wheel to the lock on a locked out machine.

I agree with learning other realms. I have training in hydraulics and pneumatics. You at least have to know how to read a hydraulic diagram.

Troubleshooting isn't for everyone. Some people love it and are good at it, while others will never be good at it and hate it. There is a certain kind of patience needed. To me, (I like it) it's like playing a game of chess, especially when I have to reverse engineer something I have never worked on before. Over the years I have developed a very orderly manner in which to solve problems. Guessing gets you nowhere.

I didn't see this mentioned, but it is important to know your tools and test equipment. If you don't know why your DVOM indicates 120 volts and your solenoid tester shows nothing on the same circuit when it happens, you aren't ready to get paid to troubleshoot electrical problems. You need to know your test equipment literally inside and out.

You will need to develop a rapport with the operators of the machinery. They can make or break a troubleshooter in a production environment. A certain amount of psychology is involved. You need to know what to listen to and what to ignore.

I wish you luck.

This is BY FAR the smartest advice you'll get on this topic. While the production managers, team-leaders, supervisors, and other "middle-management pukes" get big bonuses for keeping the lines producing---their bonuses DO NOT decrease just because an electrician DIES. NEVER, NEVER EVER let some hectic, heat of the moment rat race talk you into an unsafe act. I tip my hat to MARKY

Best regards,
Mike

 

[wptski]

I spent 15 years of my life training maintenence electricians at large companies, and I can tell you there is a direct corelation to the ones that are good and the ones that know the theory/math.

Read the maintnence manuals for the equipment you have, most of the people I trained had never read the manuals for equipment they had been responsible for 20+ years.

Get some good training

Be familiar with the NFPA 70B, it is basically the maintnence bible for electrical equipment.

In the auto industry which is all I know, very few pieces of equipment came with manuals. I wasn't a elctrician but machine repair and that was a running joke for us to tell a electrican that at least they have a schematic to work from, we have nothing!

 

[K8MHZ]

This is BY FAR the smartest advice you'll get on this topic. While the production managers, team-leaders, supervisors, and other "middle-management pukes" get big bonuses for keeping the lines producing---their bonuses DO NOT decrease just because an electrician DIES. NEVER, NEVER EVER let some hectic, heat of the moment rat race talk you into an unsafe act. I tip my hat to MARKY

Best regards,
Mike

Thank you!

It sounds like you have been there!

To the OP:

FWIW, I wouldn't budge and that got me in much disfavor with production. The reason the foremen cut the lock is because I refused. I was threatened with termination. Yeah right.

I spent several years in QC right out of high school. I did both in process and returned goods inspection. It's easy for me to get in good with QC because I can speak their language. When a pinhead foreman wanted me to get a machine running just to run bad parts out the door, I simply let QC know. I have had foremen literally scream at me.

You may even get that from you own foreman. One of mine was a former millwright and was a real a hole. You will find yourself having to make a choice between standing your ground or losing your job more than you will ever come to care for.

The other side of the coin is that it is a fascinating, rewarding job. You never stop learning and never do the same thing every day. You will spend very little time being bored. Some days will fly by. I have worked 11 hour shifts with no breaks and it never bothered me because I was so wrapped up in what I was doing it seemed like I was only there a few hours.

There are few jobs that are actually fun in this world and being a troubleshooter can be one for the right person.

 

[K8MHZ]

In the auto industry which is all I know, very few pieces of equipment came with manuals. I wasn't a elctrician but machine repair and that was a running joke for us to tell a electrican that at least they have a schematic to work from, we have nothing!

I never had any. All we had were the hydraulic diagrams and they were seldom correct. We had to know what electrical stuff was on the valves and use the hydraulic diagrams to locate the valves and go from there.

We never knew what were in the panels. My first day at the foundry a HPS light over a furnace caught fire. The guy training me, a former Navy electrician, and I were walking down the cat walk and saw it burning. I suggested shutting off the power but my mentor told me that by the time he figured out where the breaker was the fire would be out. He was right. The next day we played trace a pipe and eventually found the lighting panel and after a round of playing click and check with the breakers we got the circuit shut down.

Then, I got to go in a cage lifted by a forklift and change out the light which was directly above an aluminum holding furnace running at 1400 degrees.

We don't need no stinking diagrams!

 

[wptski]

I never had any. All we had were the hydraulic diagrams and they were seldom correct. We had to know what electrical stuff was on the valves and use the hydraulic diagrams to locate the valves and go from there.

We never knew what were in the panels. My first day at the foundry a HPS light over a furnace caught fire. The guy training me, a former Navy electrician, and I were walking down the cat walk and saw it burning. I suggested shutting off the power but my mentor told me that by the time he figured out where the breaker was the fire would be out. He was right. The next day we played trace a pipe and eventually found the lighting panel and after a round of playing click and check with the breakers we got the circuit shut down.

Then, I got to go in a cage lifted by a forklift and change out the light which was directly above an aluminum holding furnace running at 1400 degrees.

We don't need no stinking diagrams!

Maybe for that, you could get away with it but I'm refering to gear cutting/lapping machines, torque testing, gear ratio testing, pre-load testing, etc. If a electrician had no print, they were off the hook. This stuff is all computer operated and lots with the Windows logo on the screens. Yeah, you don't start these machines till you boot them up.

 

[realolman]

K8MHZ nailed it.

About the troubleshooting, the rewarding, fascinating experiences, the operators, the production people.

wptski

This stuff is all computer operated and lots with the Windows logo on the screens. Yeah, you don't start these machines till you boot them up.

And some people want you to shut it off.

I imagine everyone here knows how long it takes for your computer to boot up. Try it sometime in a production environment.

 

[zog]

In the auto industry which is all I know, very few pieces of equipment came with manuals. I wasn't a elctrician but machine repair and that was a running joke for us to tell a electrican that at least they have a schematic to work from, we have nothing!

They have them, you just have to dig to get them. I trained every electrician at your plant and found all the schematis for your power system, had to dig hard to get them from engineering. You can also find the manuals in line easy enough.

 

[jimbo123]

Lots of good stuff here , like always. great electricians . Thanks for passing your knowledge along to me.