by Staff | Sep 1, 2011 | Aircraft, Control Systems, CSI, Oil and Gas
THE MYSTERY A local aircraft manufacturer has a fuel farm of ten large tanks, each storing 30,000 gallons of Jet A fuel. A valve on each tank opens to allow fuel to flow in and out to tank trucks or other tanks. When one of these valves failed, the customer called in...
by Staff | May 26, 2011 | Control Systems, CSI, Measurement
THE MYSTERY One of ACES’ clients does metal fabrication and manufacturing for the government, which has exacting standards. In this case the client needed to report and display the rotational speed of a spin lathe shaft. In some applications it might be possible to...
by Staff | May 13, 2011 | Control Systems, CSI, Motion Control, Programming
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 amplifier that indicated “the operating parameters were...
by Staff | Apr 22, 2011 | Control Systems, CSI, Motion Control, Programming
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 to the cabinet wall and grounded, causing the...
by Staff | Mar 18, 2011 | Aircraft, Control Systems, CSI, Furnaces and Ovens
THE MYSTERY ACES performs the annual gas train safety checks on the ovens and autoclaves for an aerospace parts provider. One of steps of the safety checks is the combustion blower airflow or pressure-proving switch. When the ACES Control System Investigator was...
by Staff Writer | Mar 7, 2011 | Control Systems, CSI, Motion Control, Yaskawa VFDs
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...
