by Staff | Jul 19, 2012 | Control Systems, CSI, Yaskawa VFDs
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...
by Staff | Jul 16, 2010 | Aircraft, Control Systems, CSI, Furnaces and Ovens
THE MYSTERY The temperature controller of a 20-year-old vacuum furnace had gone completely dark. This furnace was a critical piece of equipment for the owner, a local aircraft plant. The original manufacturer of the controller no longer supported it — but they would...
by Staff | Oct 21, 2009 | Control Systems, CSI, Motion Control, Wiring and Electricity
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 machine it would resume operation sometimes for hours...
by Staff Writer | Oct 8, 2009 | Control Systems, CSI, Municipal Water, Programming
THE MYSTERY A municipal water plant was stuck with an unresponsive system of 28 PLCs and an AWOL dealer. The case of the obsolete PLCs. Every vendor the client talked to insisted a whole new system was the only way to get the plant back up to speed again. THE CLUES...