Morning
Lane had all the Mecop's come down to the visitor center for lean training. He had a presentation and a demo for us to run through with him to better explain lean. It was really helpful to get some of the reasoning behind the continuous improvement department. The simulation was us working at a paper airplane factory. When we made lean improvements there were large improvements in the output and quality of the planes. It was rigged to come out that way, but a lot of the ideas make sense.
Afternoon
I came back to the office and took a look at the work I had left. Since my scr's got in from Newark, I started to work on that board. I pulled the old scr, but the new one still wouldn't trigger. I found that the gate current was way too low. More current triggered the scr and got the board working. I wired in a switch to control the triggering, but I still need to put in the short. I am thinking of two bus bars that can be shorted with any piece of metal. We shall see how it works.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Day 105
Morning
I worked on the required Mecop documents. I've got to have a power point and a written document to them in two weeks (I found out yesterday via email). I managed to modify my presentation and get it to Matt for approval, but the written document will take a little bit more time because I have to describe each of my projects in 5-10 pages.
Afternoon
I took a look at 1 Arc because Chris hit water on his Friday melts. It wasn't much to see, just some water on the floor and a big scorched hole in the crucible about the size of a screw hole. I wrote a little bit more, then had a project review with Tony. Everything is going well.
I worked on the required Mecop documents. I've got to have a power point and a written document to them in two weeks (I found out yesterday via email). I managed to modify my presentation and get it to Matt for approval, but the written document will take a little bit more time because I have to describe each of my projects in 5-10 pages.
Afternoon
I took a look at 1 Arc because Chris hit water on his Friday melts. It wasn't much to see, just some water on the floor and a big scorched hole in the crucible about the size of a screw hole. I wrote a little bit more, then had a project review with Tony. Everything is going well.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Day 104
Morning
I worked on my choke documentation. I added the simulation results and the experimental setup. My parts from Newark were out of stock, so I found a few replacements and gave those to Tony. Nearly the entire morning was spent updating that document so all my work will be clear when I'm gone. I also ran more Spice simulations on the circuit, using a switch instead of an scr so the model would be ideal. It works really well if I can get the scr to function properly. That's proving to be very difficult.
Afternoon
I wrapped up some more simulations and add pictures to the document. I printed it out and went through it for errors. I didn't do much more than sit at my desk and be a bum this afternoon.
I worked on my choke documentation. I added the simulation results and the experimental setup. My parts from Newark were out of stock, so I found a few replacements and gave those to Tony. Nearly the entire morning was spent updating that document so all my work will be clear when I'm gone. I also ran more Spice simulations on the circuit, using a switch instead of an scr so the model would be ideal. It works really well if I can get the scr to function properly. That's proving to be very difficult.
Afternoon
I wrapped up some more simulations and add pictures to the document. I printed it out and went through it for errors. I didn't do much more than sit at my desk and be a bum this afternoon.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Day 103
Morning
I came in and got to work on the coke demo board. I got all the components I was going to need, then I went to town on soldering them in place. No real issues came up during this process. I went to the electric shop and grabbed a screw for the heat sink, a Square D push button, and a length of wire. I had the board ready to go by lunch time.
Afternoon
The board was not working. Everything should have been fine, but the SCR was not triggered. I should have been seeing a fair amount of voltage (~10 volts) over the load resistor, but it was all over the SCR instead. It appeared that it wasn't being triggered even though everything was right on the board. I kept trying to fire the SCR with no luck. Finally I put in the other SCR IC to check, and the board still didn't work. Something must be wrong conceptually with this setup. I am not really sure what it could be, but I am thinking about it. I looked up some part numbers for different SCR's from Newark.
I came in and got to work on the coke demo board. I got all the components I was going to need, then I went to town on soldering them in place. No real issues came up during this process. I went to the electric shop and grabbed a screw for the heat sink, a Square D push button, and a length of wire. I had the board ready to go by lunch time.
Afternoon
The board was not working. Everything should have been fine, but the SCR was not triggered. I should have been seeing a fair amount of voltage (~10 volts) over the load resistor, but it was all over the SCR instead. It appeared that it wasn't being triggered even though everything was right on the board. I kept trying to fire the SCR with no luck. Finally I put in the other SCR IC to check, and the board still didn't work. Something must be wrong conceptually with this setup. I am not really sure what it could be, but I am thinking about it. I looked up some part numbers for different SCR's from Newark.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Day 102
Morning
When I got in this morning, there was a big tub of parts on my chair. Tony's RadioShack part bin was huge. I found power resistors, chokes, diodes, led's, and an SCR in them. It looked like everything that I would need to make a simulation. I went down to the instrument shop after the S11 meeting to get a capacitor for the power supply. I also checked in the pig shed for some, but the only things I could find rated at such a high voltage were about 1mF. I decided to go with a power supply in his tub, which still works and I tuned to 12VDC.
Afternoon
I walked over to the health center, but they were unable to take a look at my ear. It's almost better now anyway, so I'm not too worried. I got back and polished my presentation before heading off for separations. It took a while to get started and go through the other presentations, but they were cool. It was good to see what everyone else had been doing during the summer. My video's didn't work, but I was able to show them because they're on the T drive. The tour of separations is interesting because that place is so wild. All the chemical refinement is much different than over here.
When I got in this morning, there was a big tub of parts on my chair. Tony's RadioShack part bin was huge. I found power resistors, chokes, diodes, led's, and an SCR in them. It looked like everything that I would need to make a simulation. I went down to the instrument shop after the S11 meeting to get a capacitor for the power supply. I also checked in the pig shed for some, but the only things I could find rated at such a high voltage were about 1mF. I decided to go with a power supply in his tub, which still works and I tuned to 12VDC.
Afternoon
I walked over to the health center, but they were unable to take a look at my ear. It's almost better now anyway, so I'm not too worried. I got back and polished my presentation before heading off for separations. It took a while to get started and go through the other presentations, but they were cool. It was good to see what everyone else had been doing during the summer. My video's didn't work, but I was able to show them because they're on the T drive. The tour of separations is interesting because that place is so wild. All the chemical refinement is much different than over here.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Day 101
Morning
Today was all about S9 and beam patterns. I got across the street early to hop on while they are running. Dennis was just burning off some fingerprints, so I got to play with Gun1. I was able to get the beam patterns working on the first shot. They all worked right off, so I gave Tony a call and he came over. They were working really well. We came back over to melting where I grabbed the camera. I took some video back on S9. I got back to the office and took all the videos off. They look okay, but they're not professional quality or anything.
Afternoon
I showed Tony the videos, then emailed Ken Hansen, Rich, and Tim with the results. Tony and I went over my Mecop presentation, after which I added some video to it. It should go very well, especially with all the graphic aides. I then worked on the choke problem. We figured it would be impractical to buy a big scr to try right out of the box, so I suggested a small scale circuit for testing. I looked up some parts at Newark, and Tony said he would bring in his big box of stuff from the Petersburg RadioShack.
Today was all about S9 and beam patterns. I got across the street early to hop on while they are running. Dennis was just burning off some fingerprints, so I got to play with Gun1. I was able to get the beam patterns working on the first shot. They all worked right off, so I gave Tony a call and he came over. They were working really well. We came back over to melting where I grabbed the camera. I took some video back on S9. I got back to the office and took all the videos off. They look okay, but they're not professional quality or anything.
Afternoon
I showed Tony the videos, then emailed Ken Hansen, Rich, and Tim with the results. Tony and I went over my Mecop presentation, after which I added some video to it. It should go very well, especially with all the graphic aides. I then worked on the choke problem. We figured it would be impractical to buy a big scr to try right out of the box, so I suggested a small scale circuit for testing. I looked up some parts at Newark, and Tony said he would bring in his big box of stuff from the Petersburg RadioShack.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Day 100
Morning
There was a meeting with Phil for the furnace team to present their budget. Phil had already seen the bottom line number before the meeting started, so he didn't carry on too much about that. He asked a number of questions about the design that were focused on a goal he had in mind (like melting a certain product type in this furnace). Overall, the meeting went fine.
Afternoon
I looked for high voltage thyristors. I found a few good ones from ABB. We might be able to series a few together to use on the high voltage choke. I went to a tour of Tyco Electronics up in Wilsonville today. They make really fine coax cable. It was interesting to see their plant and processes, but it wasn't an EE's paradise. There was very little for an electrical to do there. Maybe it's not the best place for me, but it was good to see another plant.
There was a meeting with Phil for the furnace team to present their budget. Phil had already seen the bottom line number before the meeting started, so he didn't carry on too much about that. He asked a number of questions about the design that were focused on a goal he had in mind (like melting a certain product type in this furnace). Overall, the meeting went fine.
Afternoon
I looked for high voltage thyristors. I found a few good ones from ABB. We might be able to series a few together to use on the high voltage choke. I went to a tour of Tyco Electronics up in Wilsonville today. They make really fine coax cable. It was interesting to see their plant and processes, but it wasn't an EE's paradise. There was very little for an electrical to do there. Maybe it's not the best place for me, but it was good to see another plant.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Day 99
Morning
It was finally time to hit up S9. I got the maintenance laptop after the morning meeting and he headed across the street. I got connected to the plc after a few ethernet hick ups, then started to add the beam patterns. I couldn't get anything on the screen to show up, which was frustrating for me. I eventually found that there is a special ladder just for the WonderWare interface. Once I catered to that, I started seeing the circle on the screen. I toggled everything off, then headed back over here for the monthly engineering meeting in Matt's office.
Afternoon
After getting back from lunch, I took a look at the S9 stuff again. I went back over to work on the improvements to the logic that I wanted while Dennis was cleaning, rather than making Tony stand around later. Dennis wanted a lot of little things changed with the joysticks. I made all the updates that he requested (directions being backwards mostly), then had him check them before I left. I came back and chatted with Tony/Dean for a few minutes before the end of the day.
It was finally time to hit up S9. I got the maintenance laptop after the morning meeting and he headed across the street. I got connected to the plc after a few ethernet hick ups, then started to add the beam patterns. I couldn't get anything on the screen to show up, which was frustrating for me. I eventually found that there is a special ladder just for the WonderWare interface. Once I catered to that, I started seeing the circle on the screen. I toggled everything off, then headed back over here for the monthly engineering meeting in Matt's office.
Afternoon
After getting back from lunch, I took a look at the S9 stuff again. I went back over to work on the improvements to the logic that I wanted while Dennis was cleaning, rather than making Tony stand around later. Dennis wanted a lot of little things changed with the joysticks. I made all the updates that he requested (directions being backwards mostly), then had him check them before I left. I came back and chatted with Tony/Dean for a few minutes before the end of the day.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Day 98
Morning
Back to work. I took some snapshots of the welding floor for my power point. I continued to work on the inductor choke results document when I got some motivation to simulate some more. I spent a good time working with sub-circuits and LT spice to get a working model of an scr. This was actually a much bigger pain than it sounds. I also found some downtime on S9 tomorrow morning.
Afternoon
Tony gave me a little teaser with the short detection circuit. It has a time delay effect due to a capacitor in parallel with the relay coil. After I saw that, I started to tinker with the choke circuit. The idea of putting an scr in should work. There was a meeting with an accountant at 3:00 that Tony invited me to. He tried to help out with classifying things for ROI's, etc. Afterwards I had an insight on the design of the scr circuit. We will need a beefy one to take the current loads we are going to put on it.
Back to work. I took some snapshots of the welding floor for my power point. I continued to work on the inductor choke results document when I got some motivation to simulate some more. I spent a good time working with sub-circuits and LT spice to get a working model of an scr. This was actually a much bigger pain than it sounds. I also found some downtime on S9 tomorrow morning.
Afternoon
Tony gave me a little teaser with the short detection circuit. It has a time delay effect due to a capacitor in parallel with the relay coil. After I saw that, I started to tinker with the choke circuit. The idea of putting an scr in should work. There was a meeting with an accountant at 3:00 that Tony invited me to. He tried to help out with classifying things for ROI's, etc. Afterwards I had an insight on the design of the scr circuit. We will need a beefy one to take the current loads we are going to put on it.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Day 95
Morning
When I got into work, they still hadn't started the Friday melt. I wasn't too thrilled to be around if they hit water, but that didn't come into play. There wasn't too much going on around here. Tony was working in the office. I cleaned up a few projects, then started to work on a document explaining the findings I've had on the inductor choke. I worked on that for a while before leaving for Sunriver.
Afternoon
Off for vacation.
When I got into work, they still hadn't started the Friday melt. I wasn't too thrilled to be around if they hit water, but that didn't come into play. There wasn't too much going on around here. Tony was working in the office. I cleaned up a few projects, then started to work on a document explaining the findings I've had on the inductor choke. I worked on that for a while before leaving for Sunriver.
Afternoon
Off for vacation.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Day 94
Morning
I went over more designs for the choke. I was trying to do some funky circuit with a bjt as a switch, but I gave up on it because it's just not very helpful to the project. I started trying to apply different filters to the output, but that never did much for the system. I went to town on the simulations, but it appears that the only thing to do is put a load resistor on the output. I also contacted Tibbs again. He is sending a contractor up here at lunch time.
Afternoon
I met with the fiber guys and showed them what I wanted to put in. They only walked with me for about 15 minutes, but then they spent some time walking around and measuring. I continued to look at the choke problem, and I went across the street to take some pictures.
I went over more designs for the choke. I was trying to do some funky circuit with a bjt as a switch, but I gave up on it because it's just not very helpful to the project. I started trying to apply different filters to the output, but that never did much for the system. I went to town on the simulations, but it appears that the only thing to do is put a load resistor on the output. I also contacted Tibbs again. He is sending a contractor up here at lunch time.
Afternoon
I met with the fiber guys and showed them what I wanted to put in. They only walked with me for about 15 minutes, but then they spent some time walking around and measuring. I continued to look at the choke problem, and I went across the street to take some pictures.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Day 93
Morning
I started by going over to S9. Dennis was back at work, but he said that they were melting the rest of the week. It looks like we'll just have to get it next week. I needed to find a way to work on the choke problems. I really wanted to simulate the situation in SPICE, so I started looking for good old LT Spice. I was able to install it on a usb drive and get started. I built up a mock circuit using a voltage controlled switch as my short. The simulation showed me that it really all comes down to the L/R time constant. Make the resistance bigger, and the time to discharge the energy will be shorter. I want to come up with a clever way of doing that, but it'll take a little more thinking.
Afternoon
I got in touch with Craig Tibbs after lunch. He claims that he and one of his guys and he are going to contact me between 8:00 and 8:30 tomorrow morning. I am hoping that we can go through this quickly and get a rough estimate for my numbers. That is the final part of that project. I tried a few simulations with diodes at Tony's request, but they weren't what we needed at this point. I tried to read up on anything that was out there for decreasing that time frame, but it always came back to increasing the resistance.
I started by going over to S9. Dennis was back at work, but he said that they were melting the rest of the week. It looks like we'll just have to get it next week. I needed to find a way to work on the choke problems. I really wanted to simulate the situation in SPICE, so I started looking for good old LT Spice. I was able to install it on a usb drive and get started. I built up a mock circuit using a voltage controlled switch as my short. The simulation showed me that it really all comes down to the L/R time constant. Make the resistance bigger, and the time to discharge the energy will be shorter. I want to come up with a clever way of doing that, but it'll take a little more thinking.
Afternoon
I got in touch with Craig Tibbs after lunch. He claims that he and one of his guys and he are going to contact me between 8:00 and 8:30 tomorrow morning. I am hoping that we can go through this quickly and get a rough estimate for my numbers. That is the final part of that project. I tried a few simulations with diodes at Tony's request, but they weren't what we needed at this point. I tried to read up on anything that was out there for decreasing that time frame, but it always came back to increasing the resistance.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Day 92
Morning
I went over to S9 to see if Jewell had any cooling time. He said that he'd be melting all day. I came back and looked over my Mecop power point presentation. Tony is plotting a bunch of curves of the interaction between bombardment and filament on EBW 4. I helped him out by giving him some readings from the 480 panel while he tweaked the PLC. It made for some nice curves that may show how to tune the welder. I went down to the admin building looking for Tibbs. He was actually there and said that he was already looking at the cost of the fiber. I answered a few questions that he had. I hope to hear back from him soon, but I may need to stay persistent.
Afternoon
I returned the computer from S10 to the backroom and took a few snapshots of the S8-S9 area for my presentation. They will go well with the beam pattern slide. I also started to look into the choke research. I am still a little shaky on a game plan for that. I started by reading through Tony's E&M book and trying to find what I need to know, so that I can ask the question that I will be answering. I am not very far on this project yet.
I went over to S9 to see if Jewell had any cooling time. He said that he'd be melting all day. I came back and looked over my Mecop power point presentation. Tony is plotting a bunch of curves of the interaction between bombardment and filament on EBW 4. I helped him out by giving him some readings from the 480 panel while he tweaked the PLC. It made for some nice curves that may show how to tune the welder. I went down to the admin building looking for Tibbs. He was actually there and said that he was already looking at the cost of the fiber. I answered a few questions that he had. I hope to hear back from him soon, but I may need to stay persistent.
Afternoon
I returned the computer from S10 to the backroom and took a few snapshots of the S8-S9 area for my presentation. They will go well with the beam pattern slide. I also started to look into the choke research. I am still a little shaky on a game plan for that. I started by reading through Tony's E&M book and trying to find what I need to know, so that I can ask the question that I will be answering. I am not very far on this project yet.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Day 91
Morning
I got started by going down to Craig Tibbs' office to try to track him down. He wasn't in today. Jim is also out for this entire week. I hit up Dean and Tobin on my maintenance hours estimate. Dean padded some of the numbers, and Tobin increased a few. I spent some time across the street talking with Curtis and Rich too. I was trying to find a time when S9 will be open so that I can try out some beam patterns using the existing PLC.
Afternoon
The drawing that I made for the backpanel didn't have a BOM or the new circuit breakers, so I added those items. Tony also pulled me over to Ken Hansen's office to look at what he did for beam patterns. He hooked up an old TekTronics scope with a Compact Logix cpu to produce a pretty good pattern. It wasn't perfect or anything, but it was more than we need for a furnace with only a small dedicated system. The real test will be if we can get away with just using the existing PLC. I am not as convinced as before, but all will be revealed when we try it out.
I got started by going down to Craig Tibbs' office to try to track him down. He wasn't in today. Jim is also out for this entire week. I hit up Dean and Tobin on my maintenance hours estimate. Dean padded some of the numbers, and Tobin increased a few. I spent some time across the street talking with Curtis and Rich too. I was trying to find a time when S9 will be open so that I can try out some beam patterns using the existing PLC.
Afternoon
The drawing that I made for the backpanel didn't have a BOM or the new circuit breakers, so I added those items. Tony also pulled me over to Ken Hansen's office to look at what he did for beam patterns. He hooked up an old TekTronics scope with a Compact Logix cpu to produce a pretty good pattern. It wasn't perfect or anything, but it was more than we need for a furnace with only a small dedicated system. The real test will be if we can get away with just using the existing PLC. I am not as convinced as before, but all will be revealed when we try it out.
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