A Day In The Life Of A Field Service Engineer
What do our Field Service Engineers do? We sent Marketing Assistant Phoebe on the job with Field Service Engineer Jon to find out. Here’s what happened…
7.30am. Collecting Our Schedule
Let me set the scene. It’s 7.30am on a grey Friday morning and it’s raining. A lot. I’ve been assured that the generators we’re servicing today are inside but Jon is unfazed either way. ‘I’m waterproof’ he says ‘doesn’t bother me’. I wish I felt the same.
Today we’re heading to a military air base to look at two 60kVA generators. The first generator is a repair inspection, the second generator needs an A service. We collect the paperwork from Bristol HQ, pack up the van and head off.
On the way I find out more about Jon. Although he’s only been at Power Electrics for 8 months, he’s been servicing generators for 25 years. ‘If you maintain generators properly, they don’t break’ he tells me and I can see that he takes pride in his work. An engineer through and through, he even spends his spare time building steam trains.
9am. Repair Inspection: 60kVA Generator
Despite the rain, it’s an easy journey. At 9am we arrive on site, clear security and are escorted to the hangar.
Jon gets to work. He notes down the engine model and does an initial circuit of the generator. Straight away he clocks a broken ammeter on the control panel. ‘When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you can tell pretty quickly if something isn’t right’ he says, ticking items off his list as he goes.
He gets out a torch and checks the radiator, then hands it to me so that I can have a look. ‘Needs a bit of a clean’ he says. We move onto the air filters and the battery (no problems there) before heading back round to the control panel.
With the initial assessment complete, it’s time to get our ear protectors and turn the generator on. It starts, which has to be a good thing, but Jon’s spotted something else: the DC alternator battery charger isn’t working properly. He writes down the part we’ll need to order and that’s that for now. He’ll come back to fit the replacement part.
11.30am. Lunch Time
We take an early lunch and retire to the van. The guys on site are quick to offer us their canteen but Jon declines. Instead we spend a peaceful 30 minutes in our own company: Jon playing a card game on his phone and me updating twitter. You can view our day in the life twitter feed here.
12pm. A Service: 60kVA Generator
After Lunch, Jon starts his inspection ritual on the second generator. This time, when he connects the battery tester to the battery the results aren’t as good ‘that needs replacing’ he tells me ‘but other than that this set is in good condition’. He starts the generator up, ticks off a few more items and then turns it off again.
The next part of the service involves changing the oil and the filters. Gloves on, Jon pumps out the existing oil into a container and removes and inspects the filter media. The filter is dirty and has been doing its job. He fits the new filters and pours the new oil in, checking the dip stick to make sure it’s filled to the right level.
2.00 pm. That's a wrap
Jon completes the second service and then fills out a final report for both sets, detailing his findings and recommendations. Paperwork signed and job complete, we hand back our security passes and head back to Power Electrics HQ. The rain is still drumming down so we drown it out with Dire Straits. And that’s a wrap for today. Thanks for having me Jon!
