Thomas D. Hess, Jr.

Mr. Hess is a principal rotating engineer in the Rotating Equipment, Vibration, & Dynamics Team at E2G | The Equity Engineering Group, Inc. Prior to joining E2G, Mr. Hess worked as a rotating reliability engineer in a refinery where his responsibilities included machinery selection for new capital projects, supervision of machinery installation and commissioning, solution of critical or chronic plant machinery problems, creation and revision of maintenance procedures and engineering practices, machinery vibration analysis, and planning/supervision of machinery overhauls.

Mr. Hess also worked as a corporate rotating machinery consultant where his responsibilities included machinery selection consulting for new process designs and major capital projects as well as the creation and revision of rotating machinery engineering standards. Additional duties included turbomachinery vibration analysis and planning/supervision of machinery overhauls.

As the lead rotating equipment engineer for a refinery, Mr. Hess’s primary activities encompassed mentoring members of the rotating equipment team in all aspects of process machinery reliability, applying root cause failure analysis (RCFA) methodology to everyday activities, and improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of machinery repairs. He provided technical guidance to the conditions monitoring group for vibration analysis, lubricant storage, and handling systems, in-house testing of lubricant quality, thermography, ultrasonic analysis, reporting, and tracking program effectiveness. Other responsibilities included engineering the retrofit and upgrade of machinery to reduce the overall cost of ownership, small project management, and acting as the primary consultant on mechanical vibration problems in the refinery.