Equipment Malfunction


My packaging machine started malfunctioning this week. Normal operation is as follows:
  • Pour roasted beans or grounds into the hopper.
  • Set the code for the weight needed
  • Start operation
  • Beans or grounds flow into weigh bucket
  • Weigh bucket stops when correct weight is reached
  • Place bag under spout
  • Press foot-switch to open hopper
  • Operation continues automatically
Everything still works like it should, but the foot-switch is operating as if someone were standing on it, that means it fills and dumps, fills and dumps, fills and dumps just as fast as the machine will go.

The other day we had 25 cases of 36 to fill -- that's 900 bags. Normally one person can fill one box in about 5 minutes. The machine was working so fast that two of us had to work in tandem, one person filling, the other sealing, and we were completing boxes in about 3-1/2 minutes (our record was 2:55)!!

I had an electrician come in and look at the machine, he said it's not the foot-switch, it's probably a circuit board in the machine. I looked at the manual, in 1998 that part was $275. I wonder what it's going to cost in 2007?

Ah, life's an adventure. Good thing we made the work fun because it could have easily sucked.


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