The Challenge:
The problem for the Quality Metal Finishing plant in Byron, Illinois was that the proper temperatures were not holding on several of the zinc die-casters. Without the proper temperatures, the molten metal could not be molded properly and production for that particular die-caster came to a standstill. The source of the problem was determined to be the Barber-Colman temperature controllers.
"We had been experiencing non-stop reliability problems for quite a while, due to the age of the Barber-Colman temperature controllers, and then they started to fail. That's when we found out that direct replacements were no longer available," says Dave Carlson, Maintenance Supervisor for Quality Metal Finishing. "We needed to replace the failed controllers immediately. We just didn't know what to replace them with!"
Carlson contacted Bruce Barlow, Climatic Control Company Sales Representative, for assistance.
"We had done business with Climatic for a long time and Bruce helped us out with some temperature controls for our water storage tanks, so it just seemed like a natural to go to Climatic with our problem," recalls Carlson.
Whatever replacement product was selected, it was expected to be reliable, cost effective, available, and user-friendly (easy to use for the maintenance staff), besides being the appropriate industrial controller for Quality Metal Finishing's die-casting application. "Bruce has been very helpful in the past with other industrial control problems. We talked about our needs and wants, and he came back with a solution."
The Solution:
With assistance from Climatic's Industrial Automation and Control (IAC) group in Milwaukee, Barlow cross-referenced over to the Honeywell UDC3000 industrial controller. Paul Rector, IAC Manager, worked with Barlow on selecting the appropriate controller and also determined the tuning parameters for the field installation.
According to Carl Rohloff, IAC Sales Engineer, "This type of assistance is typical of what we do. Not only can we select the right products for the application, Paul, Randy (Macholl), and I all have had factory training on most of the equipment we sell, which greatly aids in trouble-shooting and field support. Our information resources are extensive. We have the technical and application expertise, and excel at providing stand-alone solutions for all of our industrial customers."
"Climatic provided us with the UDC3000 controllers and we did the installation ourselves," says Carlson. "The programming was pretty straight forward, and Bruce gave us whatever support we needed along the way. He also provided training for the maintenance staff."
"This Honeywell controller is doing a great job of maintaining the metals at the designated temperature. It also has high and low limit and alarm settings, so we know immediately when we have a problem with a particular die-caster. And it has password protection so that only authorized operators can go in and make programming changes. The maintenance staff is in agreement that these controllers are more user-friendly and easy to operate (than the Barber-Colman controllers)."
Carlson adds, "Pricing is right there, and as far as availability, Bruce made sure that the product was 'off the shelf' so that's not even an issue. We're real satisfied with this solution."
| 
