minorwork
10-04-2007, 07:55 PM
That doggone bible thumper got to me again. He teaches at a local community college. Math from him I will avoid. Professors never can grade subjectively when they know you think them an idiot. Now I'm not saying he is, but professors ARE God, or at least some think so. Anyway.
DESIGNER ANALOGIES
I have a job that requires me to correct some unknown problem with a Fletcher roof bolter. This machine enables 2 operators to follow the coal cutting machine (Joy heli-miner) and support the top by the installation of a wire mesh and roof bolts that create a beam effect on the layers of material comprising the roof of the mine.
Fixing the machine requires a lot of things from the repairman. Knowing the function of the machine, namely, temporarily support the roof with a temporary jack, drill 9.25 foot deep holes in the roof about 2 inches in diameter, shove 4 feet of epoxy glue in the hole, shove a 9 foot, 7/8 inch diameter bolt in the hole anchoring a 4 foot by 16 foot piece of wire mesh to the top.
The bolter must be able to move from entry to entry, must be of such size that it can be taken underground without destroying itself or hanging cables. On the job site the bolter must extract the contents drilled out of the hole such that operators are not exposed to silica, minimize heat produced while running, provide protection from roof falls, controls must operate such that repetitive injuries do not happen.
The bolter must be in compliance with a myriad of federal and state laws, and company policies. Machine must have electric components housed in explosion proof boxes so operation in an explosive atmosphere will not blow up the mine if the housing has an explosive mixture in it that ignites.
This and more I have to know about when told to go fix the machine as it will not move. More than once, the intelligence of the designer or design team has had problems such that I have had to correct their faulty engineering.
The designer (Fletcher engineers) knows the functions and conditions, laws, limitations, etc. the machine must be built to. In their infinite wisdom they have included instruction manuals, hydraulic and electrical schematics, wiring and hosing diagrams, theory of operations, maintenance schedules, procedures for adjustments and parts replacement and veritable encyclopedia of things not to do, cautions, death may result, do not stick your arm here or there when machine is running, etc.
Amazingly, some machines do not run long or at all when called upon to do the job for which they were designed. At some point it becomes inevitable that a factory representative must look to the designers intentions and construction techniques for some clue as to the malfunctions source. The factory representative ( if any good) will defend the factory claiming the machine was damaged in transport, supplied power not stable, 3-phase power cable misphased, operator adjusting hydraulic relief valves beyond specs, it’s not the factories fault.
Now I had the near perfect job at the mine. All authority, no responsibility. I did have to put my name to a ton of inspection compliance sheets though. But working by the hour meant my loyalties were confined to getting machines running, not loyalty to the vendor or the mine.
Astonishingly, the schematics were not 100% correct or the assemblymen had not followed them. Other times medium pressure hoses were installed where high pressure hoses were necessary. More amazing, engineers had designed hosing criteria and placement such that normal operation destroyed the hydraulic motors that moved the machine.
Intelligent designers, supernatural and otherwise, give it their best shot and throw the machine into the furnace called the physical world and see what happens. Bad machine design, bad eye design, bad immune design, bad replication design, etc. these are discovered by the Intelligence Apologist, that is the poor repairman. His job is to decipher where the designer went wrong. Maybe Intelligent Opportunist would be a better term. Intelligent Diagnostician? How about One Lucky Fellow? Intelligent Problem Solver? In my case, Inside Repairman.
DESIGNER ANALOGIES
I have a job that requires me to correct some unknown problem with a Fletcher roof bolter. This machine enables 2 operators to follow the coal cutting machine (Joy heli-miner) and support the top by the installation of a wire mesh and roof bolts that create a beam effect on the layers of material comprising the roof of the mine.
Fixing the machine requires a lot of things from the repairman. Knowing the function of the machine, namely, temporarily support the roof with a temporary jack, drill 9.25 foot deep holes in the roof about 2 inches in diameter, shove 4 feet of epoxy glue in the hole, shove a 9 foot, 7/8 inch diameter bolt in the hole anchoring a 4 foot by 16 foot piece of wire mesh to the top.
The bolter must be able to move from entry to entry, must be of such size that it can be taken underground without destroying itself or hanging cables. On the job site the bolter must extract the contents drilled out of the hole such that operators are not exposed to silica, minimize heat produced while running, provide protection from roof falls, controls must operate such that repetitive injuries do not happen.
The bolter must be in compliance with a myriad of federal and state laws, and company policies. Machine must have electric components housed in explosion proof boxes so operation in an explosive atmosphere will not blow up the mine if the housing has an explosive mixture in it that ignites.
This and more I have to know about when told to go fix the machine as it will not move. More than once, the intelligence of the designer or design team has had problems such that I have had to correct their faulty engineering.
The designer (Fletcher engineers) knows the functions and conditions, laws, limitations, etc. the machine must be built to. In their infinite wisdom they have included instruction manuals, hydraulic and electrical schematics, wiring and hosing diagrams, theory of operations, maintenance schedules, procedures for adjustments and parts replacement and veritable encyclopedia of things not to do, cautions, death may result, do not stick your arm here or there when machine is running, etc.
Amazingly, some machines do not run long or at all when called upon to do the job for which they were designed. At some point it becomes inevitable that a factory representative must look to the designers intentions and construction techniques for some clue as to the malfunctions source. The factory representative ( if any good) will defend the factory claiming the machine was damaged in transport, supplied power not stable, 3-phase power cable misphased, operator adjusting hydraulic relief valves beyond specs, it’s not the factories fault.
Now I had the near perfect job at the mine. All authority, no responsibility. I did have to put my name to a ton of inspection compliance sheets though. But working by the hour meant my loyalties were confined to getting machines running, not loyalty to the vendor or the mine.
Astonishingly, the schematics were not 100% correct or the assemblymen had not followed them. Other times medium pressure hoses were installed where high pressure hoses were necessary. More amazing, engineers had designed hosing criteria and placement such that normal operation destroyed the hydraulic motors that moved the machine.
Intelligent designers, supernatural and otherwise, give it their best shot and throw the machine into the furnace called the physical world and see what happens. Bad machine design, bad eye design, bad immune design, bad replication design, etc. these are discovered by the Intelligence Apologist, that is the poor repairman. His job is to decipher where the designer went wrong. Maybe Intelligent Opportunist would be a better term. Intelligent Diagnostician? How about One Lucky Fellow? Intelligent Problem Solver? In my case, Inside Repairman.