LMT News

News of people and events important to the Lubrication Management 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.

ATS APPOINTS JOE PYCZ AS NEW VP OF OPERATIONS
Advanced Technology Services, Inc., (ATS), a leader in managed services for equipment maintenance, IT infrastructure support and industrial parts repair, has announced the appointment of Joseph A. Pycz as vice president of Operations. Pycz brings 30+ years experience in operations and management to ATS, including having served the past 12 as president and CEO of ThyssenKrupp Crankshaft, LLC. During that time, he led and managed the company’s growth from two plants with annual revenues of $35 million to four locations with annual revenues near $350 million. Prior to that, he had been plant manager at Wyman-Gordon Company.

TIMKEN IN ALADON NETWORK & IVARA EXP PARTNER PROGRAM
Ivara Corporation has announced that The Timken Company has joined The Aladon Network and the Ivara EXP Enterprise Implementation Partner Program. The Aladon Network is Ivara’s global network of reliability experts and certified practitioners of Ivara RCM2™ and Ivara Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA), advanced methodologies for team-based approaches to developing a reliability strategy for all assets in an organization. As an Aladon Network Member, Timken is certified to deliver training and consulting services for Ivara RCM2 and MTA. In addition, the company now is an authorized reseller of Ivara EXP Professional asset reliability strategy development software. As an EXP Enterprise Implementation Partner, Timken will be able to deliver implementation consulting for Ivara EXP Enterprise asset performance management software. EXP Enterprise provides a cohesive and integrated platform to develop, implement and manage a living equipment reliability program.

Speaking of Timken, building on its extensive line of industrial lubricants, the company has announced the addition of several quality lubricant-delivery products, including grease guns, pumps and kits. These products are being introduced in the United States in March and in Canada during the second quarter of 2008. According to a company spokesperson, its new lubricant-delivery product line complements Timken’s ability to go beyond bearing technology and provide friction management solutions that meet maintenance needs.

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 airconditioned 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.

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 DONATES $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. 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 OPC-compliant 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 endusers 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 multi-vendor installations.”

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 e-mailing: aceee_publications@aceee.org.

ASHRAE & BOMA SIGN MOU
ASHRAE (www.ashrae.org) and BOMA, the Building Owners and Managers Association International (www. boma.org), have signed a Memo of Understanding recognizing shared technical interests in fostering superior building performance. Among other things, the groups will work together to identify opportunities and achieve goals associated with shared services, collaboration on product/ service development and support and participation in standard development, initially centering around ASHRAE standards 62.1, 90.1, 180P and 189.1P.

“ASHRAE and BOMA are on the forefront of developing standards that significantly impact building owners and managers, and we look forward to working more closely with them on these matters,” says BOMA’s international chairman and CEO Brenna S. Walraven. ASHRAE president Kent Peterson, P.E., agrees. “We are all working toward optimal performance of both new and existing buildings. This partnership will be beneficial for both ASHRAE and BOMA members.”

SEND MT NEWS ITEMS TO: jalexander@atpnetwork.com