The Case of the Non-Sensing Sensor
THE MYSTERY One of ACES’s municipal water customers had an issue with the external display for an ultrasonic sensor, which sits above a tank and measures the liquid level. The unit was displaying a fault and the customer could not get it to reset. THE CLUES One of the...The Case of the Random Fuel Tank Valve
THE MYSTERY An aircraft manufacturer was experiencing intermittent problems with one of their fuel tank valves: It would work fine for a while and then randomly give a fail-to-close alarm. THE CLUES The first day the Control Systems Inspector (CSI) visited the plant,...The Case of the Over-Cranked Fan
THE MYSTERY An aircraft parts manufacturer had an aluminum heat treat oven that wasn’t meeting its surveys. The customer surmised that what the oven needed was more airflow, and they called ACES to make the adjustment. THE CLUES The fan was running 500 rpm, and being...The Case of the Vandalized Manufacturing Line
THE MYSTERY One of ACES’ customers closed their factory in Utah and moved all of the equipment to Kansas in order to set up a line manufacturing synthetic twine. The system included a PLC processor and six DC variable speed drives (VSDs) and their attendant DC motors...The Case of the VFD Swap
Sometimes swapping an old VFD for a new one is harder than it looks, like when the old drive is much larger and heavier than the new one. Here, the ACES CSI (Control Systems Investigator solved both hardware and software challenges.