Winding in the Dark

It was the Friday before Christmas, and all through the company, everyone anticipating a 4-day vacation with their families. The day started like many others, with a handful of rush repairs that needed to get done before break. One job in particular, was a 400 horsepower, 900 rpm mill motor for a power company down state.  It was due to be delivered on Sunday. This motor has a large stator that needed 3 days to be rewound. This was day 3 and needed to be finished in order to be delivered on time. It was just past 9am, when all of a sudden, everything went dark! The power had gone out in the entire township.

The management team got together to form a plan. We called the power company and they said "we are already working on it, but don't expect it to come back on until the afternoon sometime or this evening". We sent out an email to our customer base and provided an emergency contact number. Many people were sent home and told to wait by their phone until the power came back on. I walked out into the technician center, and there was a group of techs standing around the 400 hp stator. Jeff, Chad, and Casey from our winding department had strung up a few battery powered lights around them and were WINDING in the near-dark!

Our team's commitment to the customer was again in full view. Taking it upon themselves, those 3 guys were determined to deliver this motor on time. The power came back on around 2pm and the stator was completed by 4pm. We immediately dipped the stator in our VPI system and placed it in the oven to bake overnight. The next day we cleaned the stator and assembled the rest of the motor. On Sunday, it was ready to deliver, which we did!