Seventy-five years old and still growing

Electrical Apparatus, Jan 2005 by Nailen, Richard L

Spread throughout the Northwest and into Alaska and the Aleutians, Cascade Machinery & Electric serves a diverse market, ranging from aircraft to seafood

SEATTLE-Gateway to Alaska since the Klondike gold rush of 1898, and a major port of entry serving the fast growing trade with Asia, this city is also home to Cascade Machinery & Electric, Inc., an electromechanical sales and service center with clients throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Cascade employs 47,39 of them here in Seattle. Others-mostly service technicians or sales personnel-work out of field offices in Portland, Ore., Spokane, Wash., and Boise, Idaho. Another location is being prepared in Anchorage, Alaska.

Besides that, said president John Strong, "We have three facilities in the Aleutian Island chain that we don't own, but which keep some of our inventory. They're at Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, and Naknek. Our service territory is basically Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska."

First established in 1918 on another site nearby, Cascade Machinery & Electric began as a motor rewind and hydraulic elevator repair operation. Several years later, about 75 years ago, Ed Strong and two other employees bought the firm.

The business moved to this site during the 1940's. Additions since then include a warehouse area at the front of the property, and storage space shared with another nearby firm for a stock of 1-200 hp TEFC motors. The senior Strong retired about the time of the first move, and his son took over, retiring in turn in the mid-1980's. Ed Strong's grandnephew John makes the third generation of Strong family management here.

Besides Strong, management here includes vice president Brian Hayward and shop supervisor Roger Arns. "Our average longevity here is 16 years," Strong said. Added Arns: "People are constantly going to schools, vendor schools mostly. We have a training room with video and teleconferencing capability." The shop works a single shift, with some overlap to create a 12-hour workday, five days a week. "But we're on call 24/7," declared Hayward.

A diverse base

Asked what specialty the company might be noted for, Strong replied: "That's tough. In the Northwest, we have no specific major industries; we're very diverse up here. After Boeing and Microsoft, of course, there are a lot of small niches. We have some general industries-sugar, potatoes.

"We are very strong in seafood. There's been a massive consolidation in that industry. Used to be hundreds, now maybe 20 companies are dominant on the processing side. They have these big 700-foot processing ships-shore based canneries are a dying dinosaur.

"Corrosion is the big problem. Most ships still use industrial-grade equipment, not marine gear that meets IEEE 45 or the Coast Guard standards. To look at them, you'd think they were any shore-based facility. They don't want to pay for the more expensive corrosionresistant material.

"We have to do a lot of rigging-getting stuff off the boats, pulling a motor up a companionway. Sometimes they'll just cut a big hole in the side of a ship so we can get something out from below decks, then just patch it up afterwards. You wouldn't believe what they do."

Added Arns: "For corrosion resistance, we have good success with red Glyptal as a primer, and our standard paint over that. Most customers won't pay for the special two-part epoxy finish you have to use for the Navy.

"We get stuff down here from Alaska in barges-lots of motors, pumps, generators. . . . They usually have backups so they don't have to air-freight. In Alaska, there's still a lot of shore-based seafood canneries. And we are closer to the lower end of Alaska, where the lumber industry is, than they are to the bigger cities in Alaska."

Business today is 75% sales of new equipment, 25% repair (which includes no transformer work and no repair of explosion-proof machines). Of the repair portion, almost two-thirds is mechanical: pumps, fans, and blowers. Cascade distributes two lines of air compressors, with both sales and rental units stocked up to 150 hp. Considerable work involves vacuum pumps, common in food processing. Inventory also includes four lines of motors and two of ASD's.

Smaller machines

Largest electrical machinery repairs so far have involved a 1,200 kW generator for one customer, and 900 hp slow speed ventilating fan motors for a railroad tunnel through the nearby Cascade Mountains. However, most electrical machinery servicing here involves much smaller units.

Said Arns: "We do some single-phase work. And there's a lot of 50 cycle 380 volt stuff, like centrifuges, on the Japanese and European trawlers. Some of these small motors could cost $10,000 to replace. A $500 rewind makes sense, but for a standard motor, maybe a $300 item, it wouldn't; you'd throw it away. Some of these little specials, you'd have to buy a whole new machine just to replace the motor, or maybe wait six to seven months."

What problems does Arns see with some of the specialty European motors in production machinery? "Their use of Mylar," was his quick response. "And they don't seem to see the need for thorough varnishing. You can cold-strip the winding; don't even need to burn it out. You can almost push a coil back in once you've pulled it out." Also, bearing housing walls are sometimes too thin to allow remachining to restore a damaged fit.