An estimated 60,000 AA mechanisms from ABB are still in service and continuing to operate reliably. ABB will present an updated version of the AA mechanism training session at the 2009 Finepoint Circuit Breaker Test and Maintenance Training Conference.

“Maintaining Westinghouse AA-7/10/14 Mechanisms” is one of two half-day training seminars that are included with conference registration. The ABB seminar is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 7.

“The AA mechanism is one of the most popular in the industry,” said Bart Gaskey, marketing manager at ABB, High Voltage Service.

This seminar will cover the history of breaker operating mechanisms, design and theory of operation, and key components and how they work. Suggested maintenance and troubleshooting will also be presented.

ABB's George McCracken and Andy Sebek will combine to deliver a useful mix of theory and practice that can immediately be applied by conference attendees. McCracken and Sebek, along with working models of the AA mechanism, will be available for the duration of the conference during the exhibition hours to make sure you get the most out of this popular training course.

George McCracken brings 52 years of experience in power circuit breakers and is currently a senior operations consultant for ABB. He has been involved in all aspects of power circuit breakers for Westinghouse and ABB. These include design, development, manufacturing, marketing, quality assurance, field service and breaker failure analysis.

His accomplishments include establishing and directing the ABB/ Westinghouse Power Circuit Breaker Technology and Manufacturing Center as well as presenting many papers to technical and non-technical organizations including IEEE, EPRI, Doble, and Finepoint.

He attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now CMU) School of Engineering. McCracken is married with four children and has been blessed with five and one-half grandchildren, along with a number of foster grandchildren.

Andy Sebek is a project engineer for ABB's High Voltage Service organization. He attended the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1994 with a B.S. in mechanical engineering. Sebek has been involved in the design, manufacturing, repair, remanufacturing and service of power circuit breakers for both Westinghouse Oil Circuit Breakers and ABB SF6 Circuit Breakers. His accomplishments include leading custom application-specific circuit breakers, developing and performing in-depth Westinghouse OCB training programs, as well as training with Westinghouse Legacy Experts on a daily basis.