Innovations in manufacturing and insulation

Electrical Apparatus, Sep 2005 by Jones, Kevin

Next month's insulation and electrical manufacturing conference in Indianapolis to highlight what's new in electrical design and application

INSULATION, OUTSOURCING, and power transmission are among the subjects to be covered at this year's joint Electrical Insulation Conference and Electrical Manufacturing Expo, being held Oct. 23-26 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.

Exhibitors will emphasize, in addition to products and services along these lines, motor/drive and motor/ generator systems as opposed to discrete machines working in isolation from one another. The two conferences have traditionally been held jointly in odd-numbered years.

The conference isn't just for those in manufacturing. Some sessions intended for designers and manufacturers of electrical power systems may also be of interest to those involved in service and repair. These include sessions on innovations in motor and transformer design as well as predictive maintenance and the latest in resins and other insulations.

Many of the speakers hail from companies and universities in what may be called "the insulation belt"-northern Indiana and Ohio and southern Michigan-as well from countries other than the U.S. These include Italy, Japan, Canada, Hungary, Austria, Brazil, and Iran. At least a dozen speakers will be visiting from companies and universities in China.

About 150 companies had reserved exhibit space as this issue of EA went to press. They include the typical assortment of wire, cable, insulation, instrument, and electrical component manufacturers, along with a smattering of engineering and maintenance service providers.

The keynote address will be delivered by Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology, who will talk about outsourcing. Hira is the author of Outsourcing America and is participating in the Council on Foreign Relations' "Research Roundtable on Technology, Innovation, and America's Primacy."

The Golden Omega Award, given annually to an electrical industry leader, is going this year to John Riley, chairman and CEO of Houston-based Cooper Industries, Inc. In addition to heading the worldwide manufacturer of electrical products, tools, and hardware, Riley is a director of the National Association of Manufacturers and serves on the boards of several industrial and charitable organizations as well.

A series of "Motor & Motion College Courses" will be presented by the Motor & Motion Association. The three courses will cover basic motor theory, fundamentals of polyphase induction motor design, and fundamentals of universal electric motor design.

In a session on predictive maintenance, Noah Bethe of PdMA Corp. will talk about identifying motor defects through the "six fault zones," Mark Patterson of the University of Dayton will describe indirect analysis of motor condition through vibration and current analysis, and Dennis Shreve will explain the use of field analysis and balancing tools.

Two representatives of Baldor Electric Co., John Mazurkiewicz and Bill Ishmael, will discuss servomechanisms, looking at the advantages of servos and servo performance characteristics respectively.

Power transmission will figure prominently in several sessions. Power cables will be examined by numerous speakers, most of them from China, in a session featuring seven papers more than 25 presenters. Sessions on transformer design and applications will be presented, as will sessions on outdoor insulators, and switchgear.

For those involved in service and repair who wish to keep abreast of the latest in materials and equipment, there will be sessions on motor/generator materials, insulating materials, generator diagnostics and materials, motor design, and emerging technologies in manufacturing.

Conference "short" courses-which are actually longer than the regular conference sessions-will cover such topics as polymer chemistry, electrical insulation, magnet wire, power magnetics design, and preventing generator failure.

Information about attending the conference is available from EIC/ EMExpo '05, c/o Geo. Fern Co., 1100 Gest St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45203; (619) 435-3629; www.eic-emexpo.org.

By Kevin Jones, EA Senior Editor