The Case of the Gummed-Up Glue Machine
THE MYSTERY A local box manufacturer called ACES in a panic because the machine which produced the starch that glued their corrugated cardboard had suddenly quit working, resulting in a sticky mess. The factory used glue to turn giant rolls of paper into corrugated...The Case of the Temperamental Comms System
THE MYSTERY A large municipality hired ACES to upgrade their telemetry system from MDS serial to MDS Ethernet radios. We replaced almost twenty radios and installed two access points. After the replacement one access point periodically locked up. Cycling power would...The Case of the Condemned Generator
THE MYSTERY A large aerospace company in Kansas owned a large industrial generator that wasn’t generating; it was subsequently sold to two different companies — neither of which could make it work —so the generator was condemned. THE CLUES The first thing the ACES...The Case of the Overeager Pump
THE MYSTERY The freshwater division of a municipal water works complained that one of three pumps at a lift station was running constantly, causing the hydrostatic chamber to drain empty. This, in turn, caused the other pumps to come on, and eventually put so much pressure on the system that the pipes burst. The system was only rated for 93 psi, but with the other pumps running the pressure shot up to 130 psi.