SEMPPES
South
Power Plant Engineers’ Society
|
A Professional organization for Engineers and Suppliers of the Powerhouse Industry |
|
President |
Vice President |
Sec/Treasurer |
Sergeant-at Arms |
|
Brian Boggs |
Eric Cameron |
Alfred Preis |
Brian Irwin |
|
AAA |
D.J. Conley |
Retired |
Nalco |
|
313-336-4053 |
248-589-8220 |
734-697-0092 |
734-834-3933 |
January 2008 join us on the web at http://www.semppes.com Volume X: Issue I
|
JANUARY PRESENTATION |
|
|
|
Rumford Industrial Group Inc. |
|
TOPIC |
|
The Rumford Industrial
Group will be our January presenter discussing power plant maintenance
and repair solutions using polymeric metals, polymeric rubbers, polymeric
concrete and coatings. |
|
|
|
Date: January
17, 2008 |
|
Time: |
Place: Dimitri’s
On the Avenue
|
|
Cost:
Vendors: $25.00 per person |
|
Engineers: Free |
|
|
|
PLEASE R.S.V.P. to Dennis Insley dinsley@advnet.net or call |
|
(810)
650-2809 or fax (810)-367-2154 AS SOON
AS POSSIBLE |
|
SEMPPES is currently setting up it's 2008
agenda. If you or a company you deal with would like do a presentation
at one of the monthly meetings, please get us that info as soon as
possible. Also, we are looking to do a SEMPPES summer fun
event this June or July. If you have any ideas or thoughts please let
us know. January Quote
Dr. Napoleon Hill
As I sit
here on the eve of 2008, I wonder about SEMPPES and in wondering I come up
with some of what I hope are your thoughts for 2008: "I’ve
been saying it for years and this year I really mean it…I am going to make more
SEMPPES meetings this year." "I
know what would make a great presentation…now I just need to let one of the
officers know" "Meeting
on third Thursday…I need to remember to RSVP this time. It really helps the
waitstaff at Dimitri’s!" "It’d
probably help SEMPPES and make things run more efficiently if I got my dues
in early this year." Hint, hint… "The
SEMPPES golf outing is getting bigger and bigger, but it needs more table
prizes…I’ll have to see if I can help." "There’s
a lot of smart people involved with SEMPPES; I’m going to use the website and
networking aspects of SEMPPES more, after all, that’s what I’m paying
for!" Anyhow, I
know myself and the other officers have had these thoughts…that’s why we’re
applying our own free time to the betterment of the Southeastern Michigan
Power Plant Engineer’s Society. We’ve some
exciting things going on in 2008…some in the planning stages and some with
the ink dry. Most presentations (other than January which is being done by
the Rumford Industrial Group) are still being planned. I know we have a Green
Building / LEEDS presentation coming up in the spring. This is the
direction of the future and I think it’s important for the members to have an
introduction to what it’s about. The golf
outing will be held on August 1st at the Eagle’s Crest Golf
Club in Ypsilanti…a gorgeous up north -type venue with a fantastic
banquet area for our leisure afterwards. We’re also hoping to put together a
summer event for the family…possibly involving those aspiring Detroit Tigers.
SEMPPES is in the process of finalizing paperwork that will promote a college
scholarship gift to the HFCC energy technology department beginning in winter
semester of 2008 / 2009 for one of there outstanding students. Your new
officers for 2008 are myself, Eric Cameron as Vice-President, Al Preis as
Secretary/Treasurer and Brian Irwin as Sgt. At Arms. I hope 2008 brings
health, business success and new friends for everyone…Happy New Year! Brian
Boggs, President - SEMPPES Chicken Soup for the Engineer's Soul "SEMMPES
would like to hear your maintenance stories. Please submit same to
Brian Boggs at bqboggs@aaamichigan.com for
consideration." Back in 1979 I was working at BASF Wyandotte Chemical’s 60 year old soda ash plant as a Class “A” Millwright. Soda ash was a light powdered chemical used in glass making, soaps, and a number of other things. The soda ash plant at BASF was probably the size of three football fields and consisted of huge dryers (called calcinators) for taking the moisture out of the wet product. There were also conveyors and product elevators in every nook and cranny for conveying the soda ash to other production parts of the plant. Well, being a 60 year old plant and producing a white powdery material…needless to say, the inside of this factory looked like it had been in a perpetual snowstorm for years. All the stairway steps had 3 or 4 inches of soda ash compacted on them; all the beams (which there were many) had at least 6 inches of powder on them; and the floors were usually 8 inches deep or more with soda ash. One Friday, my foreman approached me and my millwright helper, Tim, with work requests. He asked me to go to the other end of the plant and install a mechanical seal in a pump and asked Tim to change gear oil on a conveyor drive system on a lower level. I left to complete my tasks. What I wasn’t aware of was the foreman had a unique idea to help Tim in completing the oil change faster. The gear box probably took around 40 gallons of oil, so the foreman, rather than having Tim use buckets to transfer the oil up and down the stairs, instead had Tim trolley over a 55 gallon barrel of 90 weight gear oil. Then he had him fish a high pressure air hose (110 psi) from a feed on the other side of the calcinators to one of the fittings on the barrel and from the other fitting on the barrel take a hose down to the fill port of the gear box. Here I was, working on my pump when I hear this BOOM go off from the opposite end of the plant. Every beam, Every piece of equipment, Every platform let go of the powdered soda ash that had accumulated on it due to the concussion of the blast. It looked like a blizzard at the North Pole! I ran to where the blast occurred to find Tim sitting on the soda ash – gear oil laden floor and he’s buried in product and oil. “Tim, what the hell happened?!!” “Well Brian, the foreman had me rig an oil feed system and it didn’t work too well. I hooked up everything the way he said, and then I went around the corner to turn the compressed air on. I went back to the barrel to see how things were doing and as I got around the corner I could see the barrel swelling up. I tried to get back to the air valve to close it off…but I didn’t make it.” Hmmm, heavy weight gear oil, a barrel not made for pressure, 40 feet of ½” hose and a 110 psi air line…is there a problem here? At the following Monday morning’s maintenance meeting, the
chalk board had two things drawn on it.
One said “wrong way” and showed this elaborate set-up with the high
pressure air, barrel of oil, hoses and a gear box. The other said “right way” and showed a
stick figure carrying buckets. The
foreman received a week off without pay.
Guess it goes back to the “KISS” acronym…”keep it simple stupid!” -Brian Boggs, L.S.E. |
|
New Members None for December 2007 |
If you name was not
noted as a new member please let us know and we will add to the next newsletter
NOTES and COMMENTS
1.) Supplier and Engineer Dues are $50.00 for suppliers and $20.00for
engineers for the year - 2008 Membership cards are now
available. Forms at 2008DuesWebForm.htm
Please pay at the monthly meeting or mail to our
Secretary/Treasurer:
Please include your current address and email address.
SEMPPES , c/o Alfred Preis ,
12970 Martinsville, Belleville, MI,
48111-4811
When turning in your membership application
please include two (2) business cards.
Also please be sure to include your email address and web site on the
application.
2.) Attention
both Engineering and Supplier members – Please check our website;
<www.SEMPPES.com> to assure that your name and company is listed under
the “members” heading. If not, please
email our Webmaster, Dennis Insley, at dinsley@advnet.net and
discuss your listing.
Please note
the three headings to search by:
a.)
a.) Individual name b.) Subject and
c.) Company.
All Engineering members are invited to
complete and submit their membership information to be included in our club
directory and database.
3.) If there are any mistakes on
your email address/mailing label please email corrections to dinsley@advnet.net
. Also advise us of telephone
number and email address changes to help us keep our files current.
4.) The membership roster for both engineers and suppliers
is available on the website.
5.) SEMPPES
Hats and Shirts are a great way to advertise our club to both vendors and
suppliers. They make excellent gift items also.
There are now hats and golf shirts available with the new SEMPPES
logo. The hats are $20.00 and the shirts
are $30.00. The club has new long sleeve
denim shirts with the SEMPPES logo, which are now available.
6.) Vendors
and Engineers are welcome to submit suggestions for future Presentations or
7.) "Help
wanted" and "Situations wanted" is another service available to
club members. Notices can be published
in our newsletter and on the SEMPPES’s
website.