American Control & Engineering Service, Inc.
THE MYSTERY A barrel manufacturer called ACES with a problem: The heads that formed the beads of the barrels had started moving inconsistently and roughly enough that when they stopped the whole machine would jerk. Just two years earlier ACES…
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THE MYSTERY A customer called ACES to the scene of a drop bottom furnace, which was used to fabricate aircraft detail parts and components. Like all drop bottom furnaces this one was equipped with a parts basket that was lowered…
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THE MYSTERY A beef production facility had a industrial deep freeze, 20 shelves high, complete with an elevator that delivered boxed beef to each shelf. The pusher that automatically dispensed the boxes onto the shelves for freezing had become stuck…
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THE MYSTERY The ACES CSI was called to the scene of a factory that manufactured cardboard boxes. Two of 24 drives controlling a folding and gluing machine were down and there was an error code on the front of the…
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THE MYSTERY An ACES Control Systems Engineer was called to the scene of a violent crime: A forklift had rammed a control cabinet, which pushed the side of the cabinet into the terminals of a DC drive. The power arced…
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THE MYSTERY The depalitizing elevator of a local bottling plant stopped working, bringing production to a halt. The case of the non-lifting hoist. THE CLUES Upon examination the ACES Control Systems Investigator found that the depalitizer hoist which lifts the bottles…
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THE MYSTERY A quarry providing limestone for construction and landscaping called ACES because their rock saw wasn’t cutting stone to the proper width. The saw operator had to subtract 1⁄8” from each cut to arrive at the proper stone width….
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THE MYSTERY A local chip maker called because their tortilla press would run fine for awhile, but then during the middle of a cycle the press would come down and not return to the up position. Cycling power to the…
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