One of ACES customers was wrestling with an older oven, which had been suffering for years from random flameouts due to a finicky burner. It was used to heat-treat aircraft parts, and had been tinkered with on and off over the past 10 years in an attempt…
Programming
The Case of the Billet Heater Fire
An aluminum extrusion company experienced a fire in one of their billet heaters, which damaged the machine and melted critical components inside the electrical control cabinet, along with a good part of the interconnecting wire. This was a high-demand…
The Case of the Homeless Glass Cutting Machine
A major glass manufacturer called ACES with a conundrum: One of their large glass cutting tables was acting erratically. This piece of equipment is used to trim 10′ x 10′ sheets of glass down into smaller pieces for use in the automotive and construction…
The Case of the Granddaddy Cotton Gin
For several years ACES has serviced a 80s-era cotton gin with functional mechanical parts, but a legacy control system dating back to the 1990s. One day a Control Systems Inspector (CSI) was called to the scene when a relay output card failed on the bale…
Beating the Heat
ACES partnered with Bogh Industries, experts in burners, ovens, heat-treat and mechanical engineering, on major design revisions to an oven in Chandler, AZ. This machine is part of a production facility which…
The Case of the Shifting Serial Numbers
ACES routinely maintains a legacy oven at an aircraft plant that is used to cure composite parts for long periods at relatively low temperatures. Recently the customer had been having issues with identifying serial numbers for aircraft parts, which were…
The Case of the Stubborn LACT Station
A purchaser and transporter of crude oil products contacted ACES with a challenge relating to one of their LACT stations. A LACT unit (Lease Account Custody Transfer) is the critical control system in an oil pumping station, which measures and regulates…
The Case of the Jerky Barrel Heads
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…
The Case of the Missing Parameters
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...
The Case of the Fried DC Drive
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...
