News of people and events important to the maintenance and reliability community

ALEITHE NAMED VP & GM ABB LOW VOLTAGE DRIVES BIZ

Aaron Aleithe has been named vice president and general manager of Low-Voltage Drives at ABB Inc., Automation Products. He fills the position Rick Hepperla held before his recent promotion to division manager for Automation Products in North America. In his new role, Aleithe will be responsible for the continued growth and strategic business development of low voltage drives in the U.S. market. He also will serve as a member of both the ABB Global LV Drives Business Unit team member and the North America Automation Products Division management team and work closely with the Power & Control sales and channel management teams in the U.S., to ensure continued growth in the industrial market, while extending ABB’s position in the HVAC market segment.

OPC FOUNDATION OPENS ITS FIRST CERTIFICATION LAB

The OPC (open connectivity) Foundation has announced the opening of its first Independent Certification Test Lab to validate and certify OPC products. The laboratory is located at the premier facility of Ascolab in Erlangen, Germany. OPC Foundation president and executive director Tom Burke notes that Ascolab staff members have been designers and developers of OPC Certification tools since the Foundation’s earliest days. “They are widely acknowledged as ‘the experts’ in OPC Certification and they provide a solid foundation on which to build our certification program.”

According to Burke, companies that purchase OPCcompliant products expect secure, reliable interoperability in a highly plug-and-play fashion. Thus, all products that are newly-certified by the Test Lab will carry a new ‘OPC Foundation Certified’ logo that provides end-users with an assurance of excellence. “This Certification program,” he says, “means that users can expect reduced system installation costs and products that will perform reliably in multivendor installations.”

INTEGRATED POWER SERVICES BUYS ELECTRO-MEC OPERATIONS

Integrated Power Services (IPS), a national leader in the service and repair of electric motors and mechanical power transmission components, has acquired Electro-Mec. Electro-Mec, a third-generation, family-owned power services company based in Indiana, PA, offers motor and mechanical repair, new product sales, field services and precision machined products. Terms were not disclosed. IPS is the former Power Services unit of Reliance Electric and Dodge. Headquartered in Greenville, SC, it now has 12 regional service centers across the country, offering coast-to-coast, 24/7 support to over 1400 customers across a wide range of capital-intensive industries.

SCHNEIDER CONTRIBUTES $500K TO IEEE & NFPA ARC FLASH RESEARCH

In keeping with its commitment to improving electrical standards and protecting worker safety, Schneider Electric’s North American Operating Division has contributed $500,000 to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Arc Flash Collaborative Research Project. The results of this collaborative project will provide information to improve electrical safety standards, predict hazards associated with arcing faults and accompanying arc blasts and provide practical safeguards for employees in the workplace. The multiyear project is estimated to cost $6.5 million. With its donation, Schneider becomes a Platinum Level sponsor of the project.

BALDOR DODGE RELIANCE GOES ON THE ROAD AGAIN WITH MOTION

The latest Baldor Dodge Reliance “rolling road show” wraps up in March after a successful three-month tour. The centerpiece, a special trailer carrying the value message of Baldor Dodge Reliance products directly to end-users, has been traveling the country since January. As with previous road shows targeting the Poultry and Mining industries, Baldor again partnered with Motion Industries to produce the event, this time outfitting the trailer with products for the Energy and Power Gen industry.

Brought on site to customer locations, the trailer is supported by an area’s local sales team and other representatives of Motion, Baldor Dodge (mechanical products) and Baldor Reliance (electrical products). Inside the air-conditioned unit, visitors can walk through a display of Baldor Dodge Reliance offerings, including motors, variable speed drives, gear products, shaft couplings and bearings, then access a touch-screen plasma TV to review specific industry process flow charts. Touching a particular area of the screen produces a dropdown window showing which Baldor products are used at a given point in the process. The customer then can pull up datasheets, drawings and performance data for the product. Actual product demonstrations, Q&As, etc. are conducted outside the trailer where lunch typically is grilled and served for visitors.

According to Dave Felt, Baldor’s manager of Channel Development, at the close of its latest three-month, cross-country gig, the trailer will have set up at approximately 30 sites and hosted close to 700 end-user visitors. More “rolling road shows” focusing on other industry markets, he notes, are on tap for the future.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

ACEEE PROFILES EXEMPLARY ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAMS

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has just released a report entitled “Compendium of Champions: Chronicling Exemplary Energy Efficiency Programs from Across the U.S.,” that profiles 90 of America’s most successful and effective energy efficiency programs. Together, these profiles are a vivid demonstration of how energy efficiency is America’s cheapest, fastest and cleanest new energy resource. Selected from a large set of nominations received during a national search, the 90 initiatives cover 20 different categories, ranging from industrial processes to residential lighting.

This new report is reflective of ACEEE’s second national review and selection of exemplary programs. As with the association’s first such review in 2003, this one not only recognizes outstanding energy efficiency efforts, it also honors the people and organizations responsible for their successes. (ACEEE publicly recognized these “exemplary programs” in an awards ceremony at the 4th National Conference on Energy Efficiency as a Resource, in Berkeley, CA, last October.) In addition to describing each honored program, the report also makes a number of overall observations on the factors that make them stand out.

The “Compendium of Champions” report, including brief summary profiles of each of the 90 honored programs, is available for free at http://aceee.org/ pubs/u081.htm. It also can be purchased through ACEEE Publications, by emailing: aceee_publications@aceee.org.

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