William D. Marscher, PE

Accomplishments
Mr. Marscher has spent his career of over 50 years involved in the design, development, and troubleshooting of mechanical components and systems, including pumps, fans, compressors, turbines, motors, and generators. His capabilities and experience include finite element analysis, rotordynamic analysis, experimental modal analysis, vibration testing, predictive maintenance, the mechanical design of turbomachinery, and the development and application of advanced (including magnetic) bearings and seals. In the experimental area, Mr. Marscher is known for his approach of combining advanced test techniques with computer analysis to solve mechanical problems in rotating machinery and system components. His innovative vibration test procedures won the $5,000 Dresser Creativity Award in 1986. His rotating machinery rub analysis method won the ASLE Hodson Award in 1983. Mr. Marscher also has pioneered the use of finite element analysis in the prediction of casing stress and split flange leakage, and the effects of piping nozzle loads. He has developed computer programs which automatically set up finite element models for complicated centrifugal machinery components, such as double suction casings, impellers, and entire machinery assemblies. Mr. Marscher has been active for over fifty years in the field of vibration analysis and testing, and he is the originator of the “time averaged pulse” (TAP™) vibration test procedure, which has led to the solution of pump, compressor, turbine, and motor problems in over 500 power plant, water, wastewater, chemical, and API installations.

Engineering Societies
For ASME, Mr. Marscher was chair of the Predictive Maintenance Technology Committee, was chairman of the 1995 ASME/STLE Tribology Conference, and was co-chairman of the 1993 RoCon rotating machinery conference, sponsored by the Hydraulic Institute, ASME, STLE, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE), was 1998/1999 President of the Society, was on the Board of Directors for ten years, was chair of their Annual Meeting, Awards, and Wear Committees, was the Chair of the Seals Technical Committee, and was Associate Editor of Tribology Transactions Magazine. For ASTM, for over 40 years he has been on the standards voting committees for wear, cavitation erosion, and metal fatigue. He is a voting member of the ISO/ANSI Standards Committee TC108/S2 for machinery vibration monitoring and predictive maintenance, and is U.S. Coordinator for the Hydraulic Turbine Generator Standard ISO 20816-5. Mr. Marscher is also a 20+ year member of the Texas A&M Pump Symposium Advisory Committee, and the Vibration Institute, and was Board Chair for the MFPT Society of the Vibration Institute.  He is the 2018 HI Standards Partner of the Year, and winner of the 2018 MFPT/Vibration Institute Jack Frarey Award for Machinery Diagnostics.

Publications and Short Courses
Mr. Marscher has written the stress and vibration chapter for Sawyer’s Turbomachinery Handbook, the vibration test and predictive maintenance chapters for the CRC Tribology and Lubrication Handbook, the pump wear and erosion chapter in the ASM Metals Handbook, the lubrication and bearings section of The Modern Marine Engineer’s Manual 3rd Edition, is co-author of the vibration chapter of the Pumping Station Design Handbook, and is lead author of the Mechanical Design Analysis and Testing chapter of the McGraw-Hill Pump Handbook. He is co-author of the book “Centrifugal Pump Design”. Mr. Marscher has given short courses on vibration and rotating machinery reliability 25 times at the Texas A&M Pump Symposium, and also at the U. of Virginia, the von Karman Institute in Belgium, the Sumy Institute in Ukraine, the British Pump Manufacturers Association, the IMechE in London, STLE, the Vibration Institute, the Stevens Institute of Technology, NJIT, LSU, the Georgia Tech Woodruff lecture, ASME, the Hydraulic Institute, and the Electrical Power Research Institute. He has published over 80 technical papers and proceedings articles, and holds six patents.

Professional Background
Mr. Marscher has BSME and MSME degrees from Cornell University, where he was a NASA Fellow, and an MS in Applied Physics from RPI. He has held senior positions at Pratt & Whitney, Honeywell/Bendix, Worthington, Dresser Industries, and Concepts NREC. Mr. Marscher is a registered and licensed professional engineer in the state of New Jersey.