Looking at the filter and setup, I still do not necessarily know how the glass got to the drain motor. There is a top filter with multiple small holes and a locking ring that holds this in place. The best I can figure is that somehow the edge of the filter was pushed up during the cycle and the glass worked its way in.
Both pieces of glass were about 3 x 3 mm which was just a little too large to allow the impeller to turn. The broken glass was about 2 weeks before we had the issue with the drain.
Good points, Ann. There may be a potential problem if the filter was so fine that it would quickly get clogged. So there is probably a design balance between having it fine enough to catch items like glass while still allowing a flush that doesn't quickly clog.
It seems easy and logical to me, too, Rob, although experience tells me that's not good enough when it comes to the realities of machines. But a sunflower seed may be large enough to do damage, since others mentioned a pistachio shell and glass fragments. So I'm wondering if a filter small enough to keep out these objects might also be too fine to let water pass through at high enough rates, or that maybe there's another design problem such a fine screen would cause.
Good question, Ann. My dishwasher is designed so nothing larger than a sunflower seed can get through the main compartment. It's not a fancy filter, it's just that the holes for water passage are very small. Seems an easy and logical design.
An interesting biology tidbit: rodents actually gnaw on all kinds of things that don't look or smell like food. It's to keep their teeth, which continue to grow throughout their lives, at a reasonable length, so they don't grow into their jaws. That's why they are the main wildlife, at least in temperate zones, responsible for destroying so many electrical wires.
Those little critters seem to gnaw at almost anything that might resemble food. My father in law had a porcupine or raccoon nibble through a brake or power-steering hose. The repairman said most likely there was road-salt on the hose and animals like salt in their diets. Who knew.
I hadn't heard about the transformer issue. But I'm familiar with the problems squirrels cause in gnawing wires. The first three times my internet cable connection failed out here in the forest the Comcast tech said it was all their fault. Maybe they've learned, since we haven't had that problem since. My friends in the drier areas where there are many mouse and rat species tell me they continually have car failures caused by mice and rats gnawing electrical wires.
Talking about large equipment: You can blame squirrels for many above-ground power failures, Ann. They run along wires and sometimes put their paws on a transforner terminal while standing on the metal case. That causes a brief short circuit that blows a fuse on the power pole. It kills the squirrel, too. I haven't heard about any squirrels in computers or appliances, though.
Jon, I heard the same story about Grace Hopper inventing the term "debug". A friend of mine who used to work tech support years ago told me that real bugs getting into electronics have in fact been the problem in many cases, at least on the old days with larger components.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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