NEWSLETTER
July 2005
INSIDE TEGG SERVICES
Van Bebber Brothers, Inc.WINERIES
Pump Stanchions for
Vinwood CellarsCOMMERCIAL
Russian River Pump House Overhaul Subscribe to NewsletterNewsletter Archives
KNIGHTS' MESSAGE We hope you enjoy our monthly newsletter as much as we enjoy making it available to you. We look forward to sharing stories and ideas that promote our
customers, their businesses and how we all work together to come up with solutions to the challenges we face together. We also look forward to hearing from you with your comments, feedback or story
ideas to make our newsletter more valuable to you.Barbara Ragsdale
CFO & Editor
CREDITS
Contributors to Stories:Knights' Electric
Barbara Ragsdale
Art Knight
Rob Knight
Michael Ragsdale
Richard FreitasVan Bebber Brothers, Inc.
Royce Van
Bebber, Operations Mgr. Vinwood Cellars
Ed Robbins, Maintenance Mgr.
Victor Dalot, Maintenance Engr. Writer:
Mark Dommer
Dommer &
Associates Editor:
Barbara Ragsdale
Knights' Electric
Knights' Electric, Inc.
11410 Old Redwood Hwy.
Windsor, CA 95492
TEL (707) 433-6931
FAX (707) 431-2342
Lic. #432135
info@knightselectric.com
www.knightselectric.comCopyright 2005
Knights' Electric, Inc.
Independently Rated Highest in Quality |
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TEGG SERVICES
Van Bebber Brothers, Inc.
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Distribution panel in production facility.
(click photo to enlarge)
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Van Bebber Brothers, Inc., a family-owned steel service center located on South Petaluma Boulevard in Petaluma,
has been in business since 1901. "We started in the early 1900's as a blacksmith shop making things like wagon wheels," says Royce Van Bebber, Operations Manager, "then we were a
welding shop, then a machine shop, now we're in the steel business."
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"We sell steel," says Van Bebber, "mostly prefabricated steel to welding shops and other customers. We do
sheet and plate processing plus bar stock that includes channel tubing and piping. We recently installed a plasma cutter that we use for cutting large steel sheets. Our electrical
load is just about topped out with all of equipment running."
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One of the 400-amp service panels
at Van Bebber Brothers.
(click photo to enlarge)
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Mike Saitone, Knights' Electric's TEGG Services
Sales Representative, made a timely call on Van Bebber Brothers to have the electrical system tested and make recommendations for improvements. Knights' Electric's TEGG Service
Technicians did infrared, ultrasound, and millivolt testing.
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PG&E transformers used by Van Bebber Bros.,
Knights' Electric's TEGG Services will service privately owned transformers.
(click photo to enlarge)
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"We were impressed with the way they went about the work", says Van Bebber, "when they were testing our
electrical system our work was not interrupted, there was no down time. We now know that we have to make some changes with our electrical system and they also gave us some tips on
running some of our machines." |
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We have two 400-amp service panels, one for each of our two buildings," says Van Bebber, "we want to expand our
facility with more new equipment so we know we need a bigger service and that's something else Knights' Electric can do for us." |
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WINERIES
Pump Stanchions for Vinwood Cellars
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Knights' Electric has installed
28 pump stanchions, which
they also manufacture,
at Vinwood Cellars.
(click photo to enlarge) |
Wall-mounted pump stanchion.
(click photo to enlarge)
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Fermenting tanks stand by for crush season when the pump stanchions will power the
pumps that move the juice to make the wine.
(click photo to enlarge)
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Knights' Electric, Inc. manufactures and installs U.L. listed
pump stanchions
for wineries. The pump stanchion, which can be referred to as a power stanchion for other industrial applications, is basically a plug-in station for wine pumps. Knights' Electric can custom design the pump or power stanchion depending on the needs of the customer.
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Vinwood Cellars
has been a customer of Knights' Electric for over 20 years and purchased power stanchions from Knights' Electric in the mid-eighties. They are now replacing the older models with the newer version pump stanchions that have an important safety feature built into it. The pin and sleeve devices cannot be removed from receptacles while energized.
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Pin and sleeve interlock safety feature will not
allow plugging or unplugging until lever is in
"off" position and only energizes when in "on"
position with plug locked in.
(click photo to enlarge)
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"It's all about personal safety," says Victor Dalot, Maintenance Engineer at Vinwood Cellars, "with the amount
of water that gets used in this winery these pump stanchions make the work areas a lot safer, they're off the ground, they're convenient and they're safe."
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Two pumps can be run off each pump stanchion.
(click photo to enlarge)
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At Vinwood Cellars the pump stanchions are especially convenient because Knights' Electric has installed 28 of
them, so far, and Vinwood Cellars needs 27 more. Vinwood Cellars is owned by Kendall-Jackson and produces a large amount of wine, "about 2.5 million cases a year," says Dalot, "we do
all of K-J's Chardonnay." |
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The pump stanchions at Vinwood Cellars are equipped with two 30-amp, 480-volt outlets and one 120-volt outlet.
'We can plug in two pumps at each pump stanchion to get the highest efficiency," say Dalot, "needless to say we really move around a lot of wine at this facility, especially during
the crush, which is coming up in about … one month!" |
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COMMERCIAL
Russian River Pump House Overhaul
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Two of the 1250 horsepower pumps at the Maribel pump house #4.
(click photo to enlarge)
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The Sonoma County Water Agency, along with most of the population of Santa
Rosa, rely on the Russian River as their source for domestic water. The large pump houses located alongside the Russian River on Westside Road near Wohler Bridge engage in the vital
process of delivering that water to thousands of homes and businesses everyday. Like any pumping unit with a power source that runs it, maintenance is of the utmost importance.
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Knights' Electric, along with Eaton, Inc., has completed an electrical overhaul at pump houses 3, 4, and 5 at
the facility known as the Maribel Pumping Station. The work was comprised of the replacement of 33 medium voltage motor air contactors with 33 new motor vacuum contactors sized to fit
inside the Sonoma County Water Agency's existing Westinghouse switchgears.
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New racking prior to installing new contactors.
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Measuring to make sure it fits.
(click photo to enlarge)
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Each pump house contains two caissons with each caisson containing a 1,250 horsepower, 4160-volt, three phase
pump. The work included contactor cell assembly, roll-in retrofit kits, rail modifications, mechanical interlocks, terminal blocks, fuses, and wiring along with the original
demolition and subsequent demonstration, commissioning, and training. |
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"There was a lot of cutting and welding to take out the old contactors and install the new ones," says Richard Freitas, Knights' Electric's Commercial Estimator and Project Manager for this job, "Most of the units were custom-made to fit the Water Agency's
switchboard. To maintain pumping capacity, the Water Agency would only allow one pump to be out of commission at time. One pump was down for maintenance so we worked around it and
came back later to complete the contactor replacement on that one."
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Finishing the installation.
(click photo to enlarge) |
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Knights' Electric commercial department
personnel, working alongside workers from Eaton, Inc., accomplished the replacement in a single two-week period. Lee Kambestad, Project Leader, and Jeff Biggs, Senior Sales Engineer, commended Knights' Electric on a job "well done".
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