by Staff | Feb 1, 2013 | Control Systems, CSI, Motion Control, Programming
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 had installed a brand new...
by Staff | Jan 25, 2013 | Control Systems, CSI, Furnaces and Ovens, Motion Control
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 from the underside of the furnace into...
by Staff | Feb 15, 2012 | Control Systems, CSI, Motion Control, Wiring and Electricity
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 in the out...
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 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...
