Case Studies of Harsh Application Environments
This paper will present scenarios where environmental factors played a role in inducing various degradation mechanisms to Rockwell products. The paper will attempt to concentrate on the unusual scenarios, or where assumptions were made too early in the analytical process that likely hindered efficient determination of root cause.
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Authored By:
Christopher Genthe and Kelly Flanagan
Rockwell Automation
WI, USA
Summary
Rockwell Automation is a manufacturer of a full line of industrial automation controls, from large variable frequency drives to small sensors, with many varying products in between. As such, Rockwell products are exposed to many and varying application environments and endure many unadvised or unknown shipping and storage scenarios. With these varied environments comes many different types of degradation mechanisms that can affect electrical function.
This project encompasses collected information from “typical” component level issues found in certain environments, to the strange, unusual, and unexpected cases that highlight analytical techniques and reinforce that making assumptions can be a hinderance when performing failure analysis. The paper will follow various case studies from inception to conclusion, highlighting the initial problem, the data collected, and the final resolution. These cases will encompass several environmental conditions from a range of industries, from pet food manufacturing to offshore oil platforms.
Conclusions
The preceding studies highlight several investigations that were unusual in nature, either due to the application environment, or the degradation mechanism, or both. Some of these cases highlight situations where certain initial assumptions led the investigation down an unproductive path that sacrificed valuable time and resources. Sometimes miscues are part of the investigative process, especially when application information is sketchy, but can lead to useful information. Implementation of a general analysis plan to collect data for evaluation of a possible root cause is typically a good initial path to take.
Initially Published in the SMTA Proceedings
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