News and What We are Up To.
Drafting Plans
As many of you have probably noticed, Edgar Ramos is back again this summer for engineering internship work. Edgar is a Bradley University engineering student. Edgar has been working with Steve Garthaus this summer, working on drawings for a Shaw Electric customer. The customer is going through a major control system upgrade, and needs to modify many drawings to aid in installation and future maintenance activities at the plant. This author does not know what to make of the number of screens. Can the younger guys multitask better? Are the old guys focused and cruising right along? More data needs to be collected and analyzed! Be sure to let your customers know that IAS creates and updates drawings for many companies, from Fortune 500 firms to small businesses. We utilize AutoCAD and MicroStation software to meet our customers’ needs. We’re focused on the customer, and our growing list of satisfied customers shows...
read morePanel Shop
Panel Shop There have been many changes going on with the Light Expressions warehouse these past few months. It is really starting to look good. Have you noticed the new IAS panel shop? If you look at the old location, you’ll see a pretty barren room. Down on the other end of the building, you’ll see a new panel shop taking place. Bigger, brighter, better layout, and better tools! This is a great step up for IAS and panel building. Above, one of the M&M’s, Mike Truninger, is wiring up LED task lighting. Not shown is Jesse ‘The Juggernaut’ Alvarez, who has installed much of the electrical for the shop. The other half of the M&M’s, Mark Johnson, is installing shelving and parts storage.(ABOVE) We’ll be ready for panel building in the new shop by June 6. Please let your customers know of our panel building capabilities and new shop! We will be ready and more capable than ever to deliver high quality engineered panels to our customers. Ken Deering...
read moreClass Time
Class Time During the last couple of months, IAS has held motor control classes for Shaw Electricians. Not only is the material good for electricians to know, our licensed electricians also receive Continuing Education Units for attending the classes. They need 18 hours of CEU’s every 3 years to maintain their state electrical licenses.Classes have been held in Davenport, Waterloo, and New London. Instruction included basic motor control circuit elements, hands on building of control circuits, schematics, troubleshooting, and safety. Below, Adam Fraise (far left) troubleshoots a motor controller that Stephen Mahieu (standing) has created a ‘problem’ in. Kurt Wagner (left) and Nathan Burden (right) watch as Adam does his troubleshooting. If you have questions about CEU classes, contact Dan Freeman. Ken Deering...
read moreSun’s Coming Up!
Sun’s Coming Up! With solar system prices coming down and electricity rates going up, most folks are seeing solar photo-voltaic systems popping up around Iowa and Illinois. And IAS/Shaw Electric are there to provide quality installations for our solar customers. Here are two solar warriors, Mark Johnson on the left, Josh Thola on the right, braving the wet and cold December, at an array they just installed. Not shown is Cecil Becerril, as he only showed his backside to the camera. Mission accomplished, Cecil. How big of system would you need to supply your electrical needs? Call IAS. We can assess your current and future needs, and size a system to fit your needs. We can also show you what your financial returns will be, so you plan your investment accordingly. If you, or you know someone or some business or organization considering a solar electric system, let us know. We’ll be happy to discuss options and possibilities. IAS/Shaw Electric can bring quality solutions for solar energy systems. Let the sun start working for you! Ken Deering...
read moreThe Other Web
The Other Web IAS and Shaw Electric have teamed up for another large controls job lately. This one isn’t the World Wide Web, it’s a web tensioning application for a local industry. What is web tensioning, you may ask? It is the process of pulling a flexible product, coming off a manufacturing process, through a series of rollers and winders, all the while maintaining just the right amount of tension on the web of material so it doesn’t break or get balled up. This is not as easy as you may think. Mike Truninger, above, also wired controls. Josh Kruse, the mastermind of the project, is on the right. He did the engineering and integration work. Mark Johnson, on the left, wired the controls, and Josh Cozad in the center performed field wiring for the motors and control wires. Tyler Mills, right, also performed field wiring. Not shown are Shaw Project Manager Eric Holst, Supervisor Lee Luett, who, out of respect for my camera, declined to be photographed, Bob Portz, Matt Jensen, and James Greer. The project came in on schedule and on budget, with process startup in progress. Well done Josh and Company! Ken Deering 2/22/16...
read moreThe Next Generation
The Next Generation With a new year upon us, it’s a good time to celebrate things new. New challenges, new technologies, and new customers. It’s especially gratifying to see new people interested in the engineering and design professions. Our business and our country need the next generation of engineers and technicians to bring the next generation of ideas to life. Those ideas are critically important to keeping our industries productive and competitive and healthy. Pictured above left is Edgar, an engineering student intern who is back to work on a project over his Christmas break. Edgar is helping us complete an engineering study for a customer that has an end-of-year deadline. To the right is Tyler, Al Glover’s son, who is a high school junior. He’s interested in a technical career, and wanted to spend a day with us seeing what a day in the life of an engineer is like. Tyler got a chance to talk with Edgar about school, internships, and what made him decide on an engineering career path. Tyler also got a chance to talk with our Jimmy Skadal about what its like for an engineer new to the field, and what engineering means to him. It wasn’t all talk for Tyler, however. I put him to work on a solar photovoltaic project I was quoting. Tyler got a chance to learn how a solar panel works, how the different parts of a system go together, and how size a system to deliver the amount of energy this customer needs. And we topped off this work by looking at the economics of a solar project for this particular customer. In this case, the customer will earn a 7% per year return on his investment, pretty handsome when you consider this is a conservative investment, and the returns are not taxed. Whatever Tyler chooses for a career, hopefully the day was beneficial for him to learn what maybe he likes or doesn’t like about engineering work. If he chooses an engineering path or an electrician path, both careers are rewarding, do good things for our world, and he can make a good living. We wish him the best in his career choices. And we wish Edgar the best in his future studies, and the light of a job at the end of his engineering school tunnel! Ken Deering 12/28/15 ...
read moreDesigns and deBuilds
Designs and deBuilds When our customers need electrical panels designed and/or built, they come to our experts at IAS. Here, Mike Truninger is building a control panel for an ethanol plant. This panel will control gates on a new DDG handling system, allowing the customer to drop DDG into a number of different bins, while controlling which bin is being filled from the ground. Above, Steve Garthaus, our design drafter, is standing next to designs he created for another panel shop in town for motor control centers. In the cabinets Steve designed are variable frequency drives, motor starters, breakers, operator screens, and the like. In this case our customer will be able to show their customers what the finished product will look like, and build the motor control centers from these designs. Steve continues to learn and grow in his job, and bring value to our company and our customers. That’s a win-win! Please tell your customers that IAS can bring designs and control panels to them to address their control system needs. Ken Deering...
read moreControl A Shredder
Control A Shredder When businesses want to destroy sensitive documents, they shred them. In this case, the industrial shredder that is getting new controls actually shreds raw material so it can be made into new product. Here, Jimmy is programming the industrial control computer, on the right. The industrial computer is called a PLC, or programmable logic controller. He’s also programming the operator interface, called an HMI, which you can see on the computer screens. Industrial computers like this scan their sensors hundreds of times a second, and depending on what it sees, it performs the logic that Jimmy has programmed and controls the machine accordingly. Our readers have experience with PLC’s in their daily lives. There is a small version of this type of computer in your car. It controls the car depending on its inputs, sensing your gas pedal position, for example. These computers are robust, fast, and dependable. No wonder auto manufacturers and industrial customers rely on them. In this case, Jimmy is going to replace an existing PLC and operator screens that have been in service for many years. The new PLC and HMI’s will serve our customer for many years to come. Please tell your customers that IAS can bring total design, programming, installation, and service for their control needs! Ken Deering 10/23/15 ...
read moreValue to the Customer
Value to the Customer For an industrial customer, having a contractor that can do design work, perform the installation, and start up the new installation is valuable. Throw in the added dimension of being able to do this from micro controllers and programming, to 15kV substation design and installation, this is very valuable. And the cherry on top is 24/7 service. Now that’s a winning combination. This is what IAS and Shaw Electric recently did at a large food grade manufacturing facility. The pictures show our folks providing both design and construction activities, as well as performing preventive maintenance activities. Adam Fraise (Below – Left) and Mitch ‘Smell the’ Coffey (Below – Right), our jack of all trades crew. Alex McRoy installing IR windows for future thermography surveys. (Below – Left) Even Darin Maynard ‘Ferguson’ from the warehouse got in on the action! (Below – Right) Mark Johnson said the breaker testing would be done in a snap. Was he hoping for a genie? (Below – Left) Matt Lanhart’s reaction when learning that Stephen would be testing Matt’s terminations (Below – Right) Josh and Stephen deciphering a transformer fan controller before installation.(Below – Left) Steve Garthaus, our drafter, pitched in for the big outage day. No AC and computers today, Steve! (Below – Right) Please tell your customers that Shaw Electric and IAS can bring total design, installation, and service for their electrical needs! Ken Deering...
read moreCommissioning Assistance
Commissioning Assistance When a new plant is constructed, a big step to bringing the plant into production is to commission the new equipment, and make sure it all works as designed. Recently, a new plant, whose power distribution system was designed by IAS, was nearing the end of the construction phase. The distributed control system integrator was new to network controls with a smart Schneider motor control center. So the integrator and customer requested IAS help to configure the computers in the motor control center and help the integrator establish communications. Above is Jimmy, an IAS engineer, and above right is Edgar, an intern, who were tasked to help the DCS vendor. They worked with experts from both companies to optimize communications and confirm wiring. With IAS assistance, startup challenges are being overcome, and the customer is closer to getting a plant that is checked out and ready for production. Please tell your customers that IAS has the knowledge and capability to test and commission new equipment. May the new plant have excellent production for many years! Ken Deering...
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