Tech tips from industrial ‘superheroes’

This issue introduces a new column to Machinery & Equipment MRO, the Fan Guys. Fan Guys intends to honour the people who “keep things running” in industry. That’s you, our readers.

Today’s workplace is one of increasing pressures and deadlines. Within this environment, the Fan Guys will try to interject a diversion into your workday.

The column will use humour to educate, enlighten and make light of the daily burden of work in the industrial environment. Relaxation, rest, play, humour — these are the things that provide the right conditions to allow your creative side to flourish.

It brings to mind the story of Archimedes, who discovered the principle of displacement while relaxing in a bath. His exclamation of Eureka! (I have found it!) expressed the joy that spontaneously happens when we come into contact with inspiration.

It is that relaxed state of mind, like that which preceded Archimedes’ flash of inspiration, that is common to most, if not all, insights that further the world’s body of technological knowledge. Here’s another example: Einstein’s breakthrough on relativity occurred after a long day where he fell asleep and dreamed that he was riding a beam of light.

This magazine can’t offer you a hot tub, nor can it supply a cot for a nap, but it can provide a small mental diversion with each Fan Guys episode. “The whole idea is to have some fun with those ever-present and unappreciated industrial fans and, of course, the technicians that look after them,” claims writer Jim Wywrot (a professional engineer who has worked in maintenance and now is in the industrial fan business).

In future issues, a Tech Tips section will accompany the comic strip, while the “technical terrors” faced by the caped crusaders — Optiman, Maintenex, Sonic and XRay — will be typical of real problems with industrial fans.

The Fan Guys comes from the minds of Wywrot, illustrator Richard Comely (creator of Captain Canuck) and producer Mark Bugdale. “We believe it is the first syndicated cartoon strip for a technical journal,” says Wywrot.

To learn more about the creative team, visit www.fanguys.com.