For a time, I worked for Nordson Corp. The Applications Division was mostly hot melt glue applicators. One customer had just installed a new unit, and it would not power up. The first thing I checked was the incoming voltage. It was 275 volts on a nominal 220V service. I told the customer that the main board may have been destroyed by the high voltage, but that I couldn't replace the board until the service voltage had been dropped to 220 plus or minus 10 percent.
After the service voltage was corrected, I returned with a replacement board. I confirmed the service voltage, and then I inspected the main board. The main board had a jumper for single-phase or three-phase power. The jumper had been set incorrectly. I corrected the jumper and installed the board to test it, and it worked. I explained to the customer that the jumper setting may have been what saved him $1,700 for a main board.
Another problem that I worked on at Nordson was a cold glue system. The application was presentation folders running at about 100 per minute. The timer had adjustments to compensate for the opening time of the glue gun. Part of the adjustment process was locating the sensors far enough ahead of the gun to allow for the response time. If the sensor and gun were too close together, a red LED would flash. This application became a problem. The senior service technician had not been able to tune the timer. Another technician had also tried and failed. The service manager had also tried.
So when my turn came, I knew it would be interesting. I had used a similar timer in some laboratory testing, so as I was working through the instruction manual setup sequence, I noticed this unit had three dip switches to set the gun open compensation, while the laboratory unit had four switches. After trying several adjustments and tuning the advance, I ran out of adjustments. I suggested to the service manager that the problem looked to be that the gun open response time was longer than the available adjustment of the three-switch unit, but the four-switch unit might have enough range. I returned to the customer, swapped the four-switch for the three-switch, and redid the tuning sequence. After several attempts to locate the sensors and tune the compensation, it finally worked.
This entry was submitted by Glenn Aitchison and edited by Rob Spiegel.
Glenn Aitchison got his first field service job in 1987. Since then, he has worked in robotics, automotive and industrial automation, and machinery. He received his Certificates of Qualification as an Industrial Electrician and an Industrial Mechanic (Millwright).
Tell us your experience in solving a knotty engineering problem. Send stories to Rob Spiegel for Sherlock Ohms.
Rob, it's preventive medicine and hindsight. I had some experiences way back where I did the dive-in approach and was not happy with the results. Doing things over due to lack of preparation or foresight is not my idea of fun. It's much more fun and challenging to concentrate on solving the problem, or finishing the assembly, than stopping multiple times to move the project, or go to the hardware or electronics store for parts. I know some things, like plumbing repairs, by definition require multiple iterations in terms of part sizes or types. So those go to a plumber (or my husband).
I think a lot of this depends on what you're working on. In the description of the systems Jon Titus describes, instructions are critical. When I'm putting together toys for the kids, it's pretty intuitive.
You're right about that. I was thinking of more complex problem-solving and/or assembly projects. OTOH, I generally use the same approach even when putting together furniture--yes I still use those, all bookshelves--even though I'm really familiar with all the screw and connector types, and generally what can go wrong.
I agree with Jon about the need for manuals to include cross-references, or better yet, a glossary that defines terms and indicates which terms mean the same thing. That would be a huge help.
There are several other (print) catalogs that I rate very highly also, including the GRAINGER catalog, the MSC INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY catalog, and several electronic supply catalogs (MOUSER, ALLIED, NEWARK, to name a few). Mentioning the McMASTER CARR catalog was just a "for instance" moment. But, I can tell you one thing, and maybe this is because of my age, I usually get VERY frustrated searching manufacturers' wesite-based catalogs. More often than not, the format of a part number in their e-database is different from the way it is printed on the item, OR as it appears in a (print) catalog. One can be driven to total distraction because of a misplaced emdash, or other diacritical mark! And, my final "beef" is that with print catalogs, I can make notes in the margins, circle important data parameters, etc. Unless I print a page from the online catalogs, I have to make some other arrangement to store that info in the project folders.
Old_Curmudgeon: I second your complaints about part numbers and descriptions in print catalogs and online catalogs. Even the manufacturers of products screw up part numbers and call something an ABC-123 in a press release when the true part number looks something like ABC12x, where x can represent several part families and they have dropped the hyphen. This situation comes up more often than people might think.
Look! I realize that I'm anachronistic in many ways. I've been "playing" with a sidecutter & soldering iron for too many decades not to realize that I'm very set in my ways about a lot of things. I realize that this is the ADVANCED DIGITAL AGE, but I believe that there is too much emphasis on everything internet, and that all previous forms of information dissemination are totally without merit. For example, there's a local radio advertisement for a garage-door outfit that will retrofit your opener so you can open the door from your i-phone, etc. While this IS great technology, it is indicative of how pervasive & ubiquitous this digital technology has become. Now, I'm NOT saying that having this feature on your smart phone is bad, but it shows how far we've come since the Hollerith card was king!!!!
For my designing goals, having print catalogs IS the best! And, while I don't resist the internet, I find it too frustrating & time-consuming to be of significant benefit.
A pox be upon the inventor of online manuals. Maybe it would be different if we all had a second computer on which we could display the manual while trying to solve a problem with software on our computer. I am sorry, I wrote that as a collective, and perhaps I am the only one that has the problem of only one computer.
I get so frustrated when trying to do things in Solidworks and I have to keep changing screens to go back to the operator's manual. I griped and carried on so with our Solidworks provider about the absurdity of paying thousands of dollars for a CAD program and they are too cheap to spend a couple of bucks to include a manual. I always compared it to AutoCad and the extensive operator instruction manuals included with the software. Then we upgraded our AutoCad and I was very disappointed to find that we now only get the manuals online.
Tool_maker; It sounds like you have only one monitor. For CAD you should have 2 monitors. And I recently found out your first monitor can be the typical horizontal orientation, while your second can be a vertical orientation, which would work well to display a manual. And if you have Windows 7, setting up a second monitor should be easy.
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