QET helps flood-ravaged mechanical repairs company get back on its feet

Like everyone, throughout the devastating floods in Queensland, the team from Queensland Electrical Training (QET) heard about homes and businesses that were suffering post floods. Chris Williamson, the owner of QET, learnt about G&D Mechanical Repairs in Rocklea from a friend.

“When I heard the mechanical workshop was in trouble I wanted to lend a hand. Electricians had installed some switchboards and power boards, and pretty much stripped the workshop bare, deeming the equipment unusable, and disposed of faulty equipment in a skip bin out the front. All that could be done in the workshop was boiling the kettle,” said Williamson. “As the workshop could not perform any mechanical work, there was no income coming in.”

Queensland Electrical Training - a business offering on-site electrical training for electricians and large organisations in Queensland - applied to Fluke Australia through its ‘Helping the helpers’ campaign, which sought to donate ten 1653B installation testers and three TiR32 thermal imagers to electricians assisting with the Queensland flood recovery.

The 1653B installation tester verifies the safety of electrical installations in domestic, commercial and industrial applications. It helps ensure that fixed wiring is safe and correctly installed to meet the requirements of IEC 60364, HD 384 and all relevant local standards. With the aid of the 1653B tester, Williamson went into the workshop and methodically tested the equipment, which G&D had been told was unusable, to see if any of it was salvageable. “We started on the mechanical hoist, which has a number of motors and controls. We stripped it, changed the bearings and put it out in the sun to dry, continually testing it with the 1653B. It turned out it could be saved,” Williamson said.

“We worked through the entire workshop in a similar manner, and sifted through the skip bins, and eventually got most things up and running. Most things, such as three-phase switches and plugs, just needed to be cleaned up and tested rather than thrown out.”

With the help of QET and Fluke, G&D Mechanical Repairs is back in business. It is now able to provide repair services for its customers, which means there is income coming in again to pay the bills, and importantly, pay its staff.

“The Fluke 1653B tester is a great tool to assist electricians diagnose and troubleshoot problems. It is a good, accurate and reliable tool that does all the tests an electrician needs. Without the 1653B, QET would have to go back to using two or three different, less accurate tools to do the same job, which would be more time consuming and less reliable,” he concluded.