It smoked, Now what?!

...and, it's a new piece of equipment and the vendor can't get a part until tomorrow

By Bob Tenney, for ERS Automation

Looks OK from this view but...

Notice the smoke damage on the vent grate.

New saw is purchased from an out of state vendor for a continuous production process. The installation and startup takes much longer than expected.

This line represents most of a plant's production.

The new piece of equipment stops.....again.

The "go to" man in the plant is down with the flu.

A breaker is "tripped", so the operator resets it. 

Smoke comes out of the top of the power supply. (not good)

The OEM is out of state and can't get a part until the next day.

The line operator is told to "call everyone"

He calls ERS at 9:05am

ERS locates a supply and installs it that morning. As the field service team heads to the customer site, engineering is making sure this new supply is correct for the application. 

Questions are asked:

What caused this supply to fail? If there was a short circuit, does this new supply have a "crobar" protection circuit on the output side? Will it fit since it is a different form factor?

Resolution:

After all is verified, the supply is installed and the process is restored.