ReliaSquatch

Three PhDs walk into a podcast, which sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but somehow turns into a very practical conversation about VFDs, motors, and reliability. In Episode 58 of Chaos and Caffeine, Howard Penrose, Carl Tolbert, and James Neil combine a frankly unreasonable number of academic credentials with decades of field experience to tackle harmonics, grounding, bearing currents, commissioning, drive selection, high-frequency noise, and the expensive consequences of getting the basics wrong. They also wander through industry consolidation, shrinking expertise, changing VFD technology, questionable purchasing decisions, and the timeless engineering tradition of fixing problems that should never have been created in the first place. Three PhDs, one podcast, several strong opinions, and enough caffeine to make 60 Hz look slow.

About The Author

HPENROSE

President of MotorDoc LLC, a Veteran Owned Small Business, Chair CIGRE-USNC A1 Study Committee – Power Generation, Chair CIGRE A1.78 “Guide for the Application of Electrical and Current Signature Analysis of Electric Motors, Generators and Powertrain,” IEEE standards including chair IEEE P1415, “Guide for Maintenance Testing and Failure Analysis of Induction Machines Rated 15 kV and Below,” Chair American Clean Power standards on DGA of wind, solar and battery transformers.

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