Vibration and balancing veteran joins team

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jan 22, 2007

Datastick Systems has hired 30-year vibration and balancing veteran Derek Norfield as Director of Applications.

As part of its ongoing crusade to improve the effectiveness of plant maintenance and reduce downtime, Datastick Systems has hired 30-year vibration and balancing veteran Derek Norfield as Director of Applications.

His mission is to help Datastick customers to get easy-to-understand answers to complex vibration questions.

He will be conducting training seminars and developing procedures for many different industries to help them achieve maximum uptime with Datastick products.

Norfield's resume includes more than 30 years experience in vibration analysis and balancing, working with the UK division of Reutlinger and with the American Hofmann Corporation, before going on to start a successful independent vibration, balancing and training company.

He is the author of the book "Practical balancing of rotating machinery", published by Elsevier Technical Press.

One of Norfield's first responsibilities is the creation and delivery of introductory vibration training seminars for Datastick customers and others who are new to vibration analysis.

The first of these seminars will take place at Datastick's headquarters in Campbell, California on 1st, 2nd and 3rd February 2007.

"Derek proves the old adage that a real expert can make a complex subject seem easy", said Michael Scandling, Datastick VP of Marketing.

"This is vitally important as large companies are losing their vibration experts to retirement and small companies recognise the need for vibration analysis in maintenance but don't know how to begin".

"Many of our customers have told us that in order to get started they need a simple, uncomplicated approach to vibration".

"That's what Derek and Datastick provide".

In addition to training, Norfield will work with Datastick to build programs to help customers to build effective vibration analysis into their maintenance programs.

In some cases this will mean starting from scratch and in other cases it will mean streamlining existing procedures to help generate effective maintenance solutions from complex vibration data.

"Rarely does one try a prototype product and say 'Wow, this is great'", said Norfield.

"But that is what happened to me when I got my hands on an early version of the original Datastick VSA.

I tested successive versions and found that the only thing better than the product was the team behind it".

"Now I am part of that team helping to start a revolution in simplifying the collection, sharing and analysis of vibration data".

"My work developing training courses and tech support will make vibration a more easily understood and more cost-effective tool to help improve efficiency and reduce manufacturing costs in a wide range of industries".

Norfield will also work with vibration consultants who use the Datastick VSA in their consulting businesses.

"Consultants tend to be great enthusiasts of the VSA.

Their customers can use the VSA to check vibration measurements between visits, create reports, and email the results to the consultant using Datastick Reporting System software based on Excel, which virtually everyone owns".

"This way, the consultant can check on potentially problematic machines without making a special trip to the facility", said Penny Melrose, Datastick CEO.