Mystery Solved at Aircraft Manufacturer:
with an On-line Industrial UPS
We’d like to share the ideas in a recent article in Automation World. One of the largest aircraft manufacturers solved the mystery about why it had a machine stoppage that resulted in scrapping thousands of dollars worth of expensive airplane parts:
There are only a few civilian aircraft manufacturers due to the high level of technology and strict manufacturing and safety standards required by the FAA, DOT and other government agencies. The company’s manufacturing floor is complex—with networked computers, PLS, robots and other power-sensitive electronics that must work reliably from the same power feeding heavy machinery. This equipment generates a lot of power pollution and can be problematic for the sensitive equipment.
Machine Stoppage: Thousands of Dollars Lost
The company decided to install a UPS to protect these applications and assure a seamless manufacturing process—so they installed line-interactive UPSs. But an unexpected machine stoppage happened—and thousand of dollars of parts had to be scrapped!
Since the loss was so high, the company’s engineers began to research what happened. A key CNC engineer, Rob Ayala, used his experience at a previous company to know that all UPSs are not the same. At Ayala’s previous company he received calls about malfunctioning line-interactive UPSs. In the article, Ayala explains, “It was almost always the result of weak or dead batteries that had failed prematurely.”
Line-interactive UPSs are designed to protect office or home computers, but are not rugged enough for manufacturing environments. In harsh environments, even the battery life is longer with an on-line UPS. Ayala explains how in his experience, an on-line UPS’s batteries lasted “two to three times longer than the one to two-year life we would get from the line-interactive systems.”
Installed On-line Industrial UPS: 3 Years Without Stoppage
Facing this revenue drain at the aircraft plant, Ayala decided to install the industrial UPS he had previously used—Falcon Electric’s SSG Series Industrial UPS. The SSG UPS is specifically designed for harsh industrial environments and operates to 55°C. He ordered several 1.5kVA units.
Ayala says, “After installing the UPS, we haven’t lost a single production run. We have been using the SSG units for protecting our critical manufacturing processes for over three years now without any problems.”
To read the full article, go to: http://www.automationworld.com/ups-heart-aircraft-manufacturer-downtime-mystery
Want more info. on the SSG UPS? click here.
And for more insights about industrial applications and UPS usage, click here.