SEMPPES
South
Power Plant Engineers’ Society
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A Professional organization for Engineers and Suppliers of the Powerhouse Industry |
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President |
Vice President |
Sec/Treasurer |
Sergeant-at Arms |
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Brian Boggs |
Eric Cameron |
Alfred Preis |
Brian Irwin |
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AAA |
D.J. Conley |
Retired |
Nalco |
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313-336-4053 |
248-589-8220 |
734-697-0092 |
734-834-3933 |
May 2008 join us on the web at http://www.semppes.com Volume X: Issue V
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MAY PRESENTATION |
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Desiccant Dehumidification |
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Presented
by: |
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TOPIC Munters Moisture
Control Services, a world leader in humidity control, will present a
short history on the development of the desiccant dehumidification industry
and provide an overview on current and upcoming technologies. Clean Air
initiatives, LEED / Green and IAQ initiatives, energy usage and
reduction efforts, etc are driving many owners to examine multiple air
management solutions. Desiccant dehumidification is employed on a
temporary basis during construction projects, disaster recovery, as a
temporary and permanent component of building, plant and process humidity /
condensation control, and corrosion mitigation during lay up & renovation
in all industries. A few case histories will be quickly reviewed
showing how a "dry air" solution can economically address multiple
challenges. |
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Date: May
15, 2008 |
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Time: |
Place: Dimitri’s
On the Avenue
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Cost:
Vendors: $25.00 per person |
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Engineers: Free |
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PLEASE R.S.V.P. to Dennis Insley dinsley@advnet.net or
call |
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(810)
650-2809 or fax (810)-367-2154 AS SOON
AS POSSIBLE |
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May Quote Great Works are performed, not by
strength, but by perseverance.
Samuel Johnson
April’s meeting,
with current secretary / treasurer, Al Preis giving a dissertation on steam
turbines had another outstanding turn-out of 73 attendees. For the year, we’re averaging 70 plus
members per meeting…up substantially from past years. So kudos to all of our dedicated
members. We certainly hope for similar
devotion from the membership in making the August golf outing as successful
as possible. There’s further info
regarding the outing at Eagle’s Crest Golf Club on the main SEMPPES webpage
or upon request we can forward flyers with detailed information. Engineers…don’t
forget to check pricing through our vendor / supplier group. AAA has traditionally used an insulating
firm that they’ve been dealing with for years (and no, they were not SEMMPES
members). Recently I had need for a
few small jobs and received pricing from them that kinda raised my eyebrows a
bit. So, off I went to the SEMPPES
directory and gave a call to one of our members that provide insulation
services. Their price was twenty five
percent of our usual contractors price!
It pays to shop, especially with our own members. Needless to say, AAA has a new insulating
company on board. SEMPPES would
like to pass along our condolences to former president, Bill Juchartz, who’s
mother, Elva, passed away on April 12th. Our May meeting
will have Munter’s Corporation’s, Alex
Hamill, from 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." Safety in Numbers In the late 70’s, I was a Class
“A” millwright at BASF Wyandotte Chemical.
Working in a heavy industrial environment, BASF’s administration
always had you working in pairs. The
apprentice working with me was Tim Clairmont.
Tim was a big strong corn fed farm boy from the rural We were assigned to the BASF soda ash plant, which was a 60 year old high maintenance complex. One of the processes of the plant was to move wet soda ash by conveyor to another building called the process plant. This building was located at least the length of a football field from the soda ash plant, so there was a pretty massive conveyor system for transporting the wet powdered product over to it from the soda ash works. If you laid the conveyor belt out end to end, you were probably looking at a belt ½” thick, six feet wide, and around 700 feet long. Even 30 years later, I think I’m pretty close on the numbers because I was involved in the replacement of that belt one time. Anyone who has worked on
conveyors knows that one end of the belt is attached to the other end via a
splice, sometimes referred to as an alligator clip. The alligator clip was a staple looking
device at the end of the belt where you would kind of lace it to the other
portion of the belt and then drive a rod between the two, connecting them
together. Underneath the conveyor were
idler pulleys for the conveyor belt to roll on and give it support. Often, wet powdered product would adhere to
the pulleys causing the conveyor belt to not track properly. It was part of the millwright’s duty to
knock the crap off the pulleys every week or so. More seasoned millwrights had emphasized to
myself and Tim, that when using hammers to knock the product off, make sure you’re hitting the pulley on the
outlet side. The way the pulleys
roll, one side rolls inward toward the belt and the other side rolls away
from the belt. The fear here was that
if you hit on the inward rolling side of the pulley, it could pull your
hammer in or even your arm in. If you
hit on the outward side, it tended to throw your arm and hammer away from the
belt. Naturally, being a production
plant, they didn’t want to shut the conveyor down for this type of
maintenance…so you did it on the fly.
Well, you can see where this is going.
Tim was working at clearing the pulleys about 30 feet down from
me. We’re both beating and clearing
product when I decided to change hands because my right arm was getting a
little sore. Changing hands put me in
the position of knocking on the inward side of the pulley, and sure enough my
arm on the very first hit got pulled in between the belt and the pulley. Well, a belt moving at speed and of the
proportions I described…you are not going to get that arm out. Period.
Where’s a 3 second time machine when you need it? I screamed at Tim for help as my work shirt
was being ripped off my back and through the pulleys. I was held fast and definitely not going
anywhere and as Tim rushed down the tunnel toward me, all I could think about
was that metal splice coming by and losing or maiming my arm. Tim got to me, saw what was happening and
blasted a full beefy fist up into the bottom center of the conveyor belt
which allowed my arm to pop out. Lost
a lot of skin, lost my shirt, but thankfully didn’t lose anything that
couldn’t be replaced. One split second
of poor decision making…that’s all it takes sometimes. Thank you Tim wherever you’re at. New
Members Steve Nickles – Advanced Air Services, Inc. Kirk Humphrey – The Macomb Groups
If you name was
not noted as a new member please let us know and we will add to the next
newsletter 50/50 Winners 1st - Scott Shephard –
Pfizer 2nd- Jon Stellena - ABM
Fairlane Plaza
Semppes June 16th Cruise and Dinner outing There is a Cruise and Dinner scheduled
for June 16th. (Overflow on the 17th. If required.) The information the cruise on the Huron Lady and dinner at the River Crab is attached. To keep cost down, and limit exposure of
SEMPPES: Please make
you own reservations, and pre pay as required, as per the attached for June
16th. They do take credit
cards. Wives / guests / significant others are
welcome. The seating is on a first come first
served basis. Any donations to help support SEMPPES can
be donated the night of the cruise / dinner.
I plan to attend with my wife and hope to see you there. Thank you for supporting SEMPPES. Eric Cameron
Thank
you! 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 http://www.semppes.com/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.
1.) 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.
2.)
The membership
roster for both engineers and suppliers is available on the website. 3.) 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.
4.) Vendors and Engineers are welcome to submit suggestions for future Presentations or Tours for the coming year. Presentations & Tours are a great way to introduce the club membership to new technologies, new products or ideas, and to help educate and update ourselves with "what's new" in our industry. They are a truly valuable benefit of SEMPPES membership.
5.) "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. |
Good day to all fellow SEMPPES Members,
We are contacting you due to a large interest in wanting Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Certification information by the United States Green Build Council (USGBC). Please find attached Pdf files pertaining to…
LEED NC
Workshop
Wednesday, June 18th in
Offered for USGBC/LEED AP.
This information was obtained by John Carlos from Energy Solutions Engineering Group. As a reminder, John is our direct contact and the appointed Liaison for us and the USGBC. Any questions or interest that you may have can be addressed directly to John. In order to assist, John with his contacts and influence can produce the results that you’re locking for. Take advantage; utilize the opportunity of us having John as a link between our organizations. John Carlos can be reached by the information below…
SIDE NOTE:
John Carlos has a couple FREE tickets (first come first
serve) to the DTE/Engineering Society of Detroit Energy Conference (Largest
Energy Conference in
John Carlos
Direct: (248) 388-2828
E-mail: jcarlos@kwenergysolutions.com