REFRIGERATOR DOOR CASE STUDY
Applications Consulting / 1 Day
July 2019
This industrial refrigerator door company was in the early stages of building a new manufacturing facility where they would be producing heated refrigerator doors that will be used in large retailers. When we arrived, we found a setup integrating an OMNIA® 8206 with an APT 6020, testing to UL471. They run ACW followed by a functional run test. This was a situation where operators, and most quality personnel, only knew to hit a green button and hope for a pass. Their largest customer would get failures on their end while these doors passed at the manufacturer’s own facility. When their customers came to visit and discovered the client was not qualified to understand/perform these tests properly, we were contacted to provide in-depth assembly line training.
Consulting Visit
Training began with a quick “Basics of Electricity” session in a classroom. Then, we went to the production line and spent the rest of our day training and testing all operators on how to properly run a test and troubleshoot failure messages. There was very little understanding of the tests being performed. There was no “Lo-limit” set and their connectors were reversed. It is possible they have tested a lot of products that were not connected properly and received false passes. The biggest emphasis of the training was getting them to conceptually understand how the test worked and also have ability to trouble-shoot unexpected results. Their test equipment lacked a verification method so a TVB-2 was recommended. There were no safe work station considerations in place since this was brand new facility, we advised the client on what steps to take to minimize chance of shock incidents.
KEY POINTS
- Basics of Electricity
- Safe workstation practices and testing methods
- Setup and Programming of OMNIA II and APT 6020
- Daily verification method
- Troubleshooting failed products
- What to avoid when testing
- Testing procedure review
- Standard research
Consulting Notes
Classroom style training was performed covering Hipot test theory. This was most valuable for those responsible for compliance, as they emphasized the need to understand the “what & why” of hipot testing. A test was administered as a group to confirm retention of information and specifications. The major issue was finding an optimal way to hipot test a unit with loose cables and within the allotted time limit, since an adapter box wasn’t an option. Customer noted many changes will be implemented and processes reviewed for safety after this training.