General repairmen of a contracting company must be versatile. They are the “trouble shooters” for the company, and may be called upon to locate trouble in, and to repair burned-out motors, worn or damaged controllers, and many different sorts in interior electrical installations. They should be able to judge whether a machine needs a new bearing, or rewinding, or what. Frequently the repairs must be made to the equipment in the building where it is installed, since it may not be practical to remove it to the shop. A repairman may also have advantageously some knowledge of armature winding, although his duties ordinarily are to handle only the troubles which can be corrected with the expenditure of comparatively little time. The repairman’s most necessary qualification is the ability to locate a trouble quickly, and either remedy it at once, or recommend authoritatively such action as is necessary for permanent repair. This requires resourcefulness and a good understanding of the operating characteristics of electrical machines and devices of all sorts. Jobs involving the rewinding of machine are generally sent to the shop and handled by an armature winder, as described in the following paragraph. A general repairman may expect compensation ranging from $80 to $125 per month. The day is usually eight hours. Some time is spent outside traveling from job to job, and the remainder inside.
PLAN No. 1196. ARMATURE WINDERS
Armature winders are now employed by many of the electrical contracting companies in their repair departments. Some concerns make a specialty of and do no other work except the winding and rewinding of electrical machines. To become a competent armature winder, a man must have a great deal of experience, which can be acquired only in the shop. However, a trade school course in this vocation will be of great assistance, and should increase materially the rate of a man’s advance and his ultimate earning capacity. It is impossible for one to do armature winding intelligently without some knowledge of electrical theory. Without it he may be able to work along like a machine, but unless he possesses some of this theoretical information he will not know why he is doing certain things certain ways and will never be competent to act independently.
An individual can start as an armature winder’s helper at making and taping coils with little or no previous experience, and can from this position gradually acquire an extended working knowledge of armature winding.
In an electrical repair shop, the armature winder must work on machines of many different types. It is often necessary for him to do lifting, and he must have full use of his fingers. He may be compelled to stand at his work for long periods. A lack of hearing is not a material detriment, and the blind have been taught to do this work successfully. Men with certain minor disablements can qualify for this service. The work is almost wholly indoors, although it may occasionally be necessary to work on a machine in a building which is under construction and open to the weather. An eight-hour day prevails. In cities the vocation is largely unionized. An armature winder helper or apprentice will receive from 20 to 40 cents per hour; a journeyman, from 60 to 75 cents per hour; and a superintendent, from $150 to $250 per month. Expert, rapid armature winders for coal, steel, and similar companies often receive as much as $200 a month. Time and a half is paid for overtime. Usually the jobs in these repair shops are steady, the men being retained in slack times at routine work of some sort or other. A competent electrical machine repair personnel is difficult to assemble, and when a repair shop has acquired one, it takes precautions to provide the men with steady work so that they will not leave.
PLAN No. 1197. PLANT AND FACTORY ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE
Nearly all factories of any consequence now employ electrical power distribution. Electrical energy is produced economically in a centrally located generating station and is distributed by the wiring throughout the plant wherever power is required. In the many plants in this country great numbers of electric motors drive the machines. Thousands of incandescent lamps are utilized for lighting. Also electrical energy may be used for electroplating, galvanizing, welding, heating, and other services. For the installation and upkeep of all this equipment, thousands of electrical maintenance men are required. The work of an electrician in a paper mill may, in detail, be quite different from that required of one in an office building or in a printing establishment. Yet each of these is an electrical maintenance man.
Duties of maintenance men.—These are extremely diversified. A good maintenance man must be a broad-gauge fellow having on tap a lot of electrical experience and information. The repair of minor electrical troubles or motors and other equipment are always under his charge. Much of the work consists of “trouble shooting,” that is of locating and correcting electrical difficulties of various sorts. Fuses blown due to sudden overload may have to be replaced. Loose connections may have to be tightened. Possibly a machine may for no apparent cause refuse to start. Then the electrician must at once locate the trouble and repair it, or arrange for the installation of a substitute machine while the faulty one is sent to the shop. Often also he may be called upon to install new wiring and equipment. In some plants the electrical maintenance department may also rewind armatures.
PLAN No. 1198. QUALIFICATIONS OF PLANT AND MAINTENANCE ELECTRICIANS
Maintenance work involves not alone a good understanding of electrical practice but also, for the first-class man, a knowledge of the industry and its manufacturing processes. The electrician should be sufficiently familiar with the machinery in the plant to determine quickly whether a trouble lies in the motor or in the driven machine. In many plants, where continuous process production prevails, those of the steel industry for example, time is an extremely important factor. The shut-down of one machine may render idle several hundred men and clog the operation of the entire factory. Efficiency naturally increases with experience in the given plant.