Constantly on the move today. Went to four factories today. Out of the four, I have been into two of them. Allow me to discuss them in sequence. Sorry no pictures for this post due to that nasty "no camera" sign. D'oh!

We went out at 11am and went to the outskirts of Puchong to a colour pellet manufacturing factory. I've been into this factory more than a month ago. Our (my) job is to install a 7.5hp inverter to run a motor. Not a typical inverter though, its slightly bigger and thicker than a shoe box and weighs about 7kg! Again my arm strength is put to the test. But fortunately for me, no drilling is needed because the holes are already there so I just have to mount it.

Despite its size, only the basic functions of the inverter is used. Only three control terminals and an external potentiometer. Anyway, after I connected the motor, power supply and the control terminals, the inverter is ready to run. Not done yet, I still have to program the inverter. The inverter is one of my favorite Japanese brand  so the programming is like a walk in the park. Moreover, the inverter has a numeric keypad which makes programming even faster and easier. I think I just found my favorite inverter!

After accessing a few program codes, the inverter is ready to make some moolah! For the factory, that is. Activated the inverter and the motor is running accordingly. The factory technician is satisfied so we move on to the next factory.

Our next destination is a box printing factory in Kota Kemuning. We were directed to the faulty machine by the officer-in-charge. Opened the control panel and in it I saw a lot of magnetic contactors and a few PLCs. Refer to Day 40 of the blog for a picture of a magnetic contactor. Apparently one of the contactors is faulty. The contactor failed to activate when the "on" signal is given by the PLC. This is not an ordinary magnetic contactor according to Mr. James. It has a built-in timer that delays the on or off states. Nothing much can be done so I jot down the model number of the contactor and we went to the next factory.

Next we went to a rubber factory in Shah Alam. The same rubber factory I went into last week and on the first day of my internship. We were called in to inspect a heavy DC motor and its driver. The problem is that the speed of the motor is unstable and fluctuates heavily. The motor is connected to a DC drive circuitry and an rpm meter is connected at the drive to display the rpm value in proportionate with the output voltage of the motor. Mr. James said that the problem lies within the circuitry of the DC drive because the output voltage is unstable eventhough the potentiometer is static. The only solution is to replace the drive but we will do that some other day.

Lastly, we went to a bodycare manufacturing plant to deliver some items. Its the same bodycare plant I went to last week. No technical work so we went back shortly after. Finally arrive back to the office at 5pm. 

There you go, FOUR visits in one day! Quite an exhaustive day for me. I have no idea how I managed to survive the trip back. It was drizzling, traffic was horrendous! One of the traffic light near my house malfunctioned and the traffic goes haywire! Took me more than 75 minutes to arrive home!