Our team
John Lorentsen • Mark Smith • Jay Miller • Phil Kinnunen • Mike Marunde • John Gasparic • Jonathan Hawley • Bill Schuh • Logan Miller • Patty Smith • RoBerta Kamps
JOHN LORENTSEN is a founding partner of Mid-America Dynamics, incorporated in 1990. He has over 30 years of experience in the operation of power generation equipment, vibration analysis, balancing, modal analysis, and large scale data acquisition and machinery monitoring.
Mr. Lorentsen was employed by the Commonwealth Edison Company from 1981 to 1990 where he was responsible for vibration analysis and balancing at ten fossil-fueled and six nuclear plants. He developed several computer-based data acquisition systems, including a stored influence coefficient fan balancing system for use by plant personnel.
Since that time, Mr. Lorentsen has been involved in developing predictive maintenance programs at large industrial sites. He has developed methods for monitoring and analyzing variable speed machinery and has conducted numerous training classes, teaching these methods.
Mr. Lorentsen has specified and managed the installation of several on-line vibration monitoring systems including Turbine Supervisory Instrumentation (TSI) on large turbine generator sets, and networked systems on many large papermaking machines. He has also used his knowledge of signal analysis techniques in the testing of non-rotating equipment such as nuclear power plant check valves and in the structural redesign of various power plant components.
Mr. Lorentsen received a B.A. degree from Taylor University and a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
MARK SMITH is a founding partner of Mid-America Dynamics, incorporated in 1990. He has extensive experience in vibration analysis, balancing, predictive maintenance, strain gage testing, radio telemetry, instrumentation calibration, and large scale data acquisition. He also has supervised the installation of many TSI and other automated data collection systems.
Mr. Smith was employed by Commonwealth Edison from 1983 to 1990 as an in-house consultant for the company's 16 generating stations. There, he was responsible for coordinating the startup and day-to-day support of the predictive maintenance programs at each of the generating stations. He also performed vibration analysis and balancing of rotating machinery on a wide variety of equipment.
Mr. Smith has also been involved in a diverse range of mechanical testing and analysis and instrumentation projects involving piping vibration, strain measurement, rotor torsional response, moveable bridge balancing, control valve response, and continuous on-line machinery monitoring. Mr. Smith has provided consulting, training, calibration, and project management services to the power, steel, paper, petrochemical, manufacturing, and food industries.
Mr. Smith received B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago and is a licensed professional engineer. He has had several papers published on vibration analysis, predictive maintenance, and remote monitoring applications.
JAY MILLER is a Consulting Engineer and has been with Mid-America Dynamics since 1991. He has over 27 years of experience in machinery analysis and related disciplines including vibration analysis, balancing, predictive maintenance vibration monitoring, laser alignment, noise analysis, and modal analysis. He is also experienced at providing engineering, sales, and installation services of vibration monitoring systems for turbine-generators, motors, fans, pumps, and other machinery.
Mr. Miller joined Mid-America Dynamics after working two years in customer support and sales for a company that represented a number of predictive maintenance product lines. In that capacity, he coordinated or assisted in the startup of predictive maintenance programs in a variety of industries. Prior to that, he worked as an in-house consultant for nine years at Commonwealth Edison's corporate vibration group. There, his primary responsibilities were to advance the company's predictive maintenance vibration monitoring program, provide vibration analysis of many types of power plant machines, and to perform turbine-generator vibration analysis and balancing.
Mr. Miller received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Vibration Institute and has given several presentations and training seminars, and published papers on vibration analysis, predictive maintenance, and balancing.
PHIL KINNUNEN is a Field Service Consultant at Mid-America Dynamics. He has over 18 years of experience in predictive maintenance, vibration analysis, balancing, and training.
Mr. Kinnunen joined Mid-America Dynamics in 1996 after working for seven years as an in-house vibration consultant at Commonwealth Edison. While at ComEd, his responsibilities included providing hardware and software training and support for the predictive maintenance program at each of the company's generating stations.
Mr. Kinnunen has provided vibration analysis, alignment, and balancing services on various types of rotating equipment. He has performed strain gage testing, modal testing, acoustic analysis, and radio telemetry testing on machinery, piping, and structures at power and manufacturing facilities. Mr. Kinnunen has also been involved with the startup of numerous on-line data acquisition systems, the installation of accelerometers, and other facets of large-scale data acquisition.
Mr. Kinnunen received an A.A.S. in vibro-acoustic technology from the Red Wing Technical Institute and Inver Hills Community College in Red Wing, Minnesota. Mr. Kinnunen has retired from his service in the Air Force Reserve.
MIKE MARUNDE is a Field Service Consultant at Mid-America Dynamics. He has over 30 years of experience in vibration analysis, balancing, machinery alignment, machinery monitoring systems, infrared thermography, ultrasound, and oil analysis/filtration.
Before joining Mid-America Dynamics in January of 2003, Mr. Marunde worked for Commonwealth Edison, Midwest Generation, and Exelon Corporation. He has worked in all phases of Predictive Maintenance, including establishing and/or implementing Predictive Maintenance Programs at fossil and nuclear power plants.
Since joining Mid-America Dynamics, Mr. Marunde has provided start-up testing and low-speed and high-speed balancing on turbo machinery, assisted in the installation of many Turbine Supervisory Instrumentation (TSI) systems, performed frequency response testing on various machines and structures, and setup and implemented Predictive Maintenance Programs at numerous industrial plants.
Mr. Marunde spent three years as a member of an EPRI study on Electric Motor Predictive Maintenance. He is a Level III Certified Vibration Analyst with the Vibration Institute.
JOHN GASPARIC has over 30 years of experience in vibration technology, including the application of predictive maintenance programs, surveillance and protection monitoring systems, and balancing machines for steam turbines, machine tools, steel and food processing equipment, and turbo-machinery. He has specified, sold and managed the retrofit of over 50 Turbine Supervisory systems.
Mr. Gasparic was employed by Rockwell Automation, formerly IRD Mechanalysis and EntekIRD, from 1986 to 2009 as an Area Sales Manager, responsible for the sale of predictive maintenance instrumentation in the Great Lakes District. He also trained over 1,000 technical personnel on vibration analysis and balancing of rotating machinery. Prior to Rockwell Automation Mr. Gasparic was a Product Manager for Dresser Industries Power Transmission Division responsible for the launching of a new product line serving the turbo-machinery market.
Mr. Gasparic received a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering technology from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and is a Certified Vibration Analyst. He also has papers published on the application of vibration in the steel and machine tool industries.
As a Solutions Architect, Mr. Gasparic assists customers in the development of the best predictive maintenance and protection monitoring system for their needs. He utilizes his broad range of knowledge and experience to promote long-term health and maintenance of your machinery, which translates into cost savings for your organization.
JONATHAN HAWLEY, Consulting Engineer, joined Mid-America Dynamics in 2007 as an apprentice field technician before receiving a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2014.
He is responsible for producing mechanical and electrical CAD drawings and for building and wiring Turbine Supervisory Instrumentation (TSI) cabinets. He has worked with Bently Nevada 3500 Systems, Rockwell Automation Entek XM systems, and Shinkawa VM-5 and VM-7 equipment.
Mr. Hawley has installed sensors and junction boxes as a component of the expansion of several customers' predictive maintenance programs. He is also a member of Pi Tau Sigma International Mechanical Engineering Honor Society.
BILL SCHUH joined Mid-America Dynamics in 2014 after working in the power generation industry. Since joining the company, he has performed steam turbine balancing as well as process equipment balancing.
Prior to working at Mid-America Dynamics, Mr. Schuh was an engineer at an Illinois coal-fired power plant for over 20 years and was involved with the operation and maintenance of all plant equipment. His duties included collecting vibration routes, analyzing vibration problems, and performing balancing of the plant equipment.
Most recently before coming to Mid-America Dynamics, Mr. Schuh was a member of the turbine/generator engineering support team for a fleet of gas turbines and steam turbines. In that role, he supervised steam turbine and gas turbine outages, set up vibration routes, and collected data on the plant equipment and provided vibration analysis and balancing support for the steam turbines and generators.
LOGAN MILLER is a consulting engineer who joined Mid-America Dynamics in May of 2013 after receiving a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mr. Miller has provided balancing, laser alignment, vibration analysis, and modal testing on various pieces of rotating equipment. He has also monitored turbine-generator startups and provided balancing services for them. In addition to this, he has worked on vibration monitoring sensor installation and troubleshooting for large machines, as well as providing predictive maintenance for a variety of different industries.
PATTY SMITH joined Mid-America Dynamics in 2002. As Process Manager, her responsibilities include accounting, insurance, invoicing, payroll, financial, and tax issues. Because of her technical background, Ms. Smith has been a valuable addition to our technical team, particularly in the areas of data acquisition and programming.
Ms. Smith has a B.S. in Information Systems & Computer Programming from Purdue University Calumet. Ms. Smith was formerly employed at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois. As an Accelerator Controls Group programmer, she wrote code and maintained software for in-house microprocessors that monitored and acquired data from various IEEE-488 devices.
ROBERTA KAMPS joined Mid-America Dynamics in May 2011 and brings over 35 years of office administration service and support. When you call our office, Ms. Kamps will likely be the first person you speak with to direct your call and help you get the service you need as quickly as possible.
At Mid-America Dynamics, Ms. Kamps has a variety of responsibilities including reception, purchase order processing and shipping, schedule and record keeping, invoicing, accounts receivable, and customer service.
Former experience includes five years as Data Processor at Cookeville General Hospital in Cookeville, Tennessee and at the Educational Data Center for the Christian Brothers at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois. For 15 years she served as Administrative Assistant to department heads at Rockwell Telecommunications and in the same capacity for over nine years to the CEO/CFO at Plainfield Companies, a stamping/molding company focused mainly in the automotive industry. Ms. Kamps attended Joliet Junior College and obtained a medical coding/billing certificate in 2010.