York Repair

Friday, July 15, 2016   York Repair is proud to announce that, earlier this year, it completed the process of acquiring Lansing Electric Motors, in Lansing Michigan.  The acquisition marks a significant milestone in York’s history, making it one of the first motor apparatus/service centers in the State of Michigan to have multiple branches available to its customers.

York Repair has announced that it has been approved as an EASA Accredited Service Center for achieving excellence in quality. York is the first company in Lower Michigan to receive EASA Accreditation.

To earn this distinction, York has “successfully demonstrated through a third party, independent audit that it follows the prescribed good practices to consistently deliver quality electromechanical repairs that maintain or improve AC electric motor efficiency and reliability.”

BAY CITY, MI -- Chris Cathcart says the 14th of every month is now noted as "Michael Day," in honor of her nephew, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Cathcart, who was killed Nov. 14, 2014, while serving with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan.

Those closest to the Bay City native have found different ways of remembering and honoring the fallen soldier -- some simple, some more complex.

On the harsh, cold lakeshore and a frigid (-14), Don Maxon and I pulled up to the Sanford Lake Dam to pick up a 22 ton rotor from a 1,375 KVA turbine generator.  It is one of three generators that were installed in the the 1920's - and the FIRST to go bad!  Because none of these turbine generators had ever been removed for repair, the rigging company had to fabricate a removable roof piece to get this turbine out, piece by piece.  

It was the Thursday before Easter weekend when the situation started. York Repair was working at a large rubber manufacturing company in Grand Rapids, investigating a failure on a 1250hp DC motor. The motor failure would have caused the shutdown of North American Operations in a matter of week, if they were not back up and running. The repair of their motor was a minimum 3 weeks due to the catastrophic failure of the winding's. We were investigating alternate options for locating a used motor we could get delivered and installed. There were no motors readily available for shipment.

The Technical Service Manager and in-house "Expert", Steve Jezowski turns 60 years old today.  Steve, who started with York 38 years ago, was the second employee hired by Frank York (the first was the late Bob Lewis).  He trained in the Navy and was immediately hired following his military service.  Steve also teaches technical classes at Delta College.  Steve is known throughout the state for his vast knowledge and troubleshooting abilities.

Congressmen Dan Kildee visited York Repair along with The Bay Area Chambers Manufacturing Council.  The Congressmen, a freshmen Democrat, toured the facility with Frank York and family, management, Michael Seward, president and chief executive officer of the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, and local media members.  Jeff York, the Council Chair, led the group through the tour.  Kildee spoke to several technicians before taking questions from the press, followed by a luncheon, and a Q & A with the Manufacturing Council.

York Repair's Annual clay shoot was held in September and over 40 customer's showed up to enjoy a day at the beautiful Bay County Conservation Club in Crump, MI.  Several sales and management staff at York, including Frank York as seen above, teamed up with customers to blast away at little clay pigeons, which seemed to be coming from everywhere!  A lunch served by Bay Cafe was enjoyed as well.

We recently purchased a new pick-up for our fleet and decided to try a graphics wrap.  After acquiring several quotes, we settled on Graphik Concepts in Farmington Hills, MI.  After several weeks of changes between our marketing department and their designer, we got it right!  A local designer, Adam Wernecke, designed the York "Dude" holding the big wrench.  York has many plans for this new mascot, an electro-mechanical "tough-guy" technician; it represents strength and tenacity, with a little bit of attitude!  If you happen to see the new truck around town or down-state, give it a

Recently, the Bay Area Chamber Manufacturers council met at York for a discussion on new business development.  The Council, which champions area businesses and brings them together to talk about best practices, helps others’ to shorten the learning curve in business.

Earlier this year, York Repair finished its second session of Dale Carnegie training, held on-site.  They put 50 employees through the course in 2012, with the remaining employees having taken it previously.

This past week, York was given, “The Dale Carnegie Leadership Award,” for their commitment to integrating Dale Carnegie training company-wide.  The award was presented to them by Dan Handley, the President of Handley and Associates who conduct the training, and Wendy Groll, who instructed both sessions and was praised for her work.

Joe Ellers, author of “The Sales Managers Handbook: How to Get the Results that You Want,” dropped by last week for an intense 2-day sales training.  Their entire sales staff and several others, including many newcomers to York, attended the training.  Many left buzzing at all the knowledge they gained and where to focus their efforts to be successful.  A couple of concepts that Joe focused on were, “know what goals the customer is trying to accomplish each year, what’s important to them, and how your sales can accomplish their goals.

This is for a 4,000HP, 2-pole (3600rpm) rotor. Ron, with the assistance of Steve and John, is heating it up to 1,300 degrees (shown here) to melt the solder so they can slip on the new copper rings, which were manufactured by York.

First, they restacked a new lamination, and then they put in new copper bars before heating it up. Finally, they will let it cool down over night before balancing and machining it, and assemble before delivering it to a waiting customer.