[AllWIRES]

I know each market is going to be different in each locale.

Does anyone on here do all or most of their business in diagnostic testing? Thermal imaging, power balancing, power quality corrections, insulation tests as a few examples.

I'm interested in any pointers anyone may have as to moving into the market.

Pros/cons?

How do you get the data to the customer? Spreadsheets, charts, graphs

How do you charge?

Any certs available? If so do they increase customer sentiment?

 

[chicken steve]

I know each market is going to be different in each locale.

Does anyone on here do all or most of their business in diagnostic testing? Thermal imaging, power balancing, power quality corrections, insulation tests as a few examples.

I'm interested in any pointers anyone may have as to moving into the market.

Pros/cons?

How do you get the data to the customer? Spreadsheets, charts, graphs

How do you charge?

Any certs available? If so do they increase customer sentiment?

We've followed up on a few companies that vie for the local area's manufacturing facilities, particularly during their shutdown 'maint' periods.

They always seem to come from some place out of state, and i'm unsure of their certs, other than the usual sundry sparky fare.....


~CS~

 

[Big John]

That's what my department does. Most of our guys are EEs, but I'm just a journeyman. The power testing certifications are NETA or NICET. Our IR certs are from FLIR. We've got a mess of equipment and safety certs from AVO. A lot of other equipment repair specialties are from manufacturer training.

Depending on what you expect to test, the capital investment in a company like this is also significant. A single 5kV megger with a data connection (which is gonna be one of your most basic pieces of equipment) runs about $4,000. We have quite a few pieces of test equipment worth more than $50,000 each.

Most of our jobs are quoted. The emergencies are T&M.

Many of the reports are generated with software from the test equipment itself. But for small or basic jobs we have computerized templates we fill in. Customers get electronic versions and bound paper copies.

The cons are that when things are running it can be very difficult to explain why equipment should be shut down to be PMed to ensure reliability: Many outfits see downtime as purely theoretical and profits from being online right now are the only reality.

The pros are that it's a much more specialized market than electrical construction so you have less competition. And if you also do the repairs when customers ignore your advice and stuff blows up, then you make a ton of money.

I enjoy the work. It varies a ton. I work on a whole mess of different equipment. I find the theory fascinating and like troubleshooting and that's gonna be your bread-and-butter.

 

[Zog]

Big John summarized it well, huge investment in training and equipment. Facilities usually want a testing company to test everything at once since it requires an outage so you can't limp into it. You will need breaker, transformer, and relay test equipment.

 

[Vintage Sounds]

I would love to do this kind of work but I don't know who does it in my area and also not sure if there's room for apprentices in that game.

 

[Zog]

I would love to do this kind of work but I don't know who does it in my area and also not sure if there's room for apprentices in that game.

Magna and Rev Engineering

 

[Vintage Sounds]

Magna and Rev Engineering

Thanks, I know some guys who work for Magna and I see Rev has been hiring lately. I'll do some research.

 

[Fibes]

huge investment in training and equipment.

To put it mildly.