Following the tremendous turnout at our Motor Reliability and Testing Seminars earlier this year, we are pleased to announce a second series will be taking place in November. There will be four dates and venues, and with over 180 people attending back in March, we recommend booking early to avoid disappointment.

Once again, the main presenter on the day will be Richard Scott, who is the vice-president of engineering and support at All-Test Pro. Richard will be taking to the stage twice to present Motor Circuit Analysis (MCA) and Electrical Signature Analysis (ESA) as two technologies which can be used to test motors both off-line and under load.

As advocates of a multi-technology approach to troubleshooting problems on motors, we will also be welcoming along Gary Mohr from UE Systems and Jack Huggett (a reliability consultant) from The Woodhouse Partnership. Gary will be discussing the merits of using ultrasound to assess the condition of bearings on conveyors, gearboxes and motors, while Jack will be kicking us off by looking at the many different approaches available to a maintenance manager.

In addition to this we will be showcasing some of the infrared cameras available on the market today. There will, of course, be opportunities to try these cameras (and our other equipment) during coffee and lunch breaks, as well as talk to any of our speakers.

Venues:

• Aberdeen (12th of November)... getting busy
• Middlesbrough (14th of November)... good availability
• Doncaster (15th of November)... very busy
• Runcorn (16th of November)... getting busy

For more information, please visit our website at... www.alpine-components.co.uk/seminars/2/. Price to attend is GBP 79.50 per person, and this includes lunch and all refreshments.

We were recently made aware of a Good Practice Guide called 'Energy savings with motors and drives'. Since this is an important topic for some, we felt it was worth sharing with our readers. The following is a short extract from the booklet:

"On an industrial site with an electricity bill of GBP 150,000/year, an average of GBP 100,000/year will be spent on running motors. Annual savings of GBP 3,000 can be achieved by using higher efficiency motors and GBP 15000 or more from fitting variable speed drives. The savings from paying attention to the efficiency of the transmission, the driven machinery and the system the machine is driving can be at least the same again."

If you would like to obtain a copy of this informative Good Practice Guide, then please e-mail me at jeremy@alpine-components.co.uk.

Alpine had a stand at the recent Energy 2007 event, held at the motorcycle museum near the NEC. While talking to many of the visitors, it became apparent to me that there are more stresses and strains today on maintenance managers and supervisors than ever before.

There has always been pressure from production to "keep the plant running", but in 2007 they have to do it with less people and utilise less energy. The one positive to take from this is that there are more tools available than ever before to help.

We've identified three areas where we may be able to help with advice and possibly equipment. Please contact us to receive free handbooks on each or all of the subjects below...

• Compressed Air: A Growing Concern You Can Control -- A 1/4" leak can cost GBP 4,000 a year in wasted energy. We also have several copies of the Carbon Trust's Good Practice Guide for compressed air systems as well.
  
  
• Steam Traps: We All Need To Let Off Steam? -- This handbook covers how to test different traps and gives approximate cost savings.
  
  
• Building Inspections: Who Left That Door Open?

Alpine will have a table-top presence at Reliability Web's Maintenance and Reliability Symposium next Wednesday (the 17th of October) at the NEC. This event has been set up to share ideas on improving equipment reliability in the power generation, manufacturing and process industries. If you would like to attend this event, please get in touch.

We will also be exhibiting at the Maintenance North West show at Old Trafford on the 12th and 13th of November. And, just to confirm, our Level 1 Ultrasound Course is now due to be held next April at the National Fluid Power Centre.

In closing, we would also like to extend a very warm welcome to Micky Jackson who has recently joined Alpine. Micky will be involved in both product training and demonstrations.

It is always good to receive your feedback on any product we have sold or rented. If you have a success story that you would like to share with others in a future newsletter, then please do get in touch.

HTML e-mail format - If you cannot read the contents of this e-mail, please reply entering the words "please forward plain text version" in the subject line. We will then arrange for all future newsletters to be sent to you in plain text format.

Unsubscribe - To unsubscribe from our newsletters, please reply to this e-mail with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

Jeremy Lineham, Mike Trim, Toni Simmonds, Jon Hill, Micky Jackson

Alpine Components
Telephone: 01424 437000
Fax: 01424 722502
www.alpine-components.co.uk