Sparks Electrical News September 2018

CONTRACTORS’ CORNER

19

ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR PROFILE: SHAUN GIBSON

E ach month, Sparks Electrical News will interview an electrical contractor to find out more about the day- to-day challenges which they face. In this, our first issue, we spoke to Johannesburg-based electrician, Shaun Gibson. After almost a decade of working as an electrician, Shaun has gained extensive knowledge and experience in installing, maintaining and testing electrical systems, building control panels and serving business customers in the commercial and industrial parts of the construction sector, as well as the engineering sector. How did you come to be an electrical contractor? I worked for a company called Vital Generators, which unfortunately lost its owner to cancer. He was one of the most brilliant minds I have come across in my life. Once he passed away, the company began losing contracts; it then started downsizing and eventually there was not much left of Vital Generators. I ended up resigning and went on to study again. What do you enjoy most about your job? I am a bit of a gadget nerd so it is difficult for me to state one thing ... I would say when I am busy wiring a house or a factory and all the labour intensive work is done and final testing commences. That moment, when you flip the main circuit breakers in the LV pan- el to the ‘on’ position and the building comes to life. It is very challenging to work on the installations of other electricians or technicians, especially when they don’t label their work or they ‘lock out’ the controller with a code so that no one can work on that controller but them (such as dedicated PLC controllers). Anoth- er challenge is that often customers don’t understand you need to switch off power before you can work on their equipment. I appreciate that downtime costs money, but I don’t risk lives. I would say that the biggest misconception is the la- belling of electricians as in 'all electricians (commer- cial or industrial) go through the same trade test.' It is the environment in which the artisan works after his or her trade test that determines the field the elec- trician will specialise in. We get taught to read and interpret the schematics or blue prints of a building, yet 80% of our trade test is motor starters and test- ing of induction motors, and sometimes we still need to refer to drawings to understand what the engineer or manufacturer did and how we must connect a par- ticular electrical device. There is a difference between an electrician, a technician, and an engineer. Do you think the training and support for electricians from industry bodies is sufficient? I don’t. There are a lot of institutes training candidates for the electrical trade which are not registered to do so, and a lot of corruption in passing electricians. IFM ELECTRONIC has released two illuminated pushbutton modules featuring a new, innovative housing. They feature two pushbuttons and two types of LED output. Their high protection rating means the modules can be used in the field, close to the pro- cess. There are no long distances between sensors or actuators and the control cabinet. Regarding per- formance in the field, the M12 connection technol- ogy provides a high degree of installation reliability and flexibility. Both modules are supplied exclusively via AS-i; so an additional 24 V voltage source is not required. The modules are simply mounted on a 35 mm DIN rail or by means of the supplied mount- ing adapter. IFM Electronic will be at Electra Mining Africa at Hall 7, stand C01, and will include live prod- uct demonstrations on the company’s new products and innovative technology. PUSHBUTTONS OFFER HIGH DEGREE OF RELIABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY What challenges do you come across on a daily basis in your work? What are the common misconceptions about a career in the electrical field?

I personally think – and this is just my opinion – that the whole system is a bit muddled. What is the best advice you have received? The best advice I ever received was to: “Do what makes you happy and never stop learning”. Which tool or piece of equipment could you not live without? My whole tool bag and all the testing equipment that gets the job done. How has your day-to-day work changed over the past few years (due to new equipment, modern technologies, etc)

It is a fast paced industry. All-in-one testers mean that you don’t have carry multiple testers around, while better tools and technology have changed the industry for the better, such as: • Relay logic has been replaced by programmable con- trollers (or most of them). This makes fault finding easier and it takes less time to build the control panel. • Monitoring devices combined with SCADA make fault prevention much easier. • Most of your operator stations have indication lights, and lot of switches and push buttons have been re- placed with an HMI. • VSD, VFD and soft starts have replaced a lot of old motors starters and motors, for example, slip ring mo- tors.

Shaun Gibson

Enquiries: +27 (0)12 450 0370

SEPTEMBER 2018 SPARKS ELECTRICAL NEWS