.jpg)
With so many musicians and so much equipment involved in the Symphonicity tour even the smallest problems can become magnified. All was going well until a potential disaster occurred only 24 hours before the show - the goods lift broke down. Without a working goods lift, Sting and his orchestral backing band would be unable to transport their musical equipment on to the stage. The prospect of disappointing thousands of Sting fans was too much to take.
Before you could say De Do Do Do De Da Da Da, the facilities manager contacted lift service provider Orona to arrange an engineer visit. Upon arriving at the site the Orona engineer quickly traced the problem back to a ThyssenKrupp MFL2040 drive. Due to the weekend and close proximity of the show, sourcing a replacement was not a viable option. The Orona engineer therefore took decisive action and contacted drive repair specialist Direct-Industrial.com to arrange an urgent repair. The drive was sent on a same day delivery from the North East to Direct-Industrial’s automation repair facility in Blackburn, Lancashire.
Listening to the greatest hits of Sting and the Police, Direct-Industrial engineers (see photo) worked through the night to repair and service the faulty drive. After visually inspecting the drive, the engineers removed each card and powered them individually. This enabled them to narrow down the problem to the power board. It was discovered that a fault on the firing stage was pulling down the supply rails, thereby causing the drive to malfunction.
Utilizing the latest techniques in analogue signature analysis, the problem was reduced to a single firing stage, after which the use of a dedicated short locating tool directed the engineer to the root cause – a short circuit capacitor. Once the fault had been cured, Direct Industrial engineers performed a full preventive maintenance service on the drive replacing serviceable parts such as capacitors, fans and relays. A large proportion of drive problems result from component failure through old age - for example capacitors can leak corrosive acid on the internal PCBs. A full service from Direct-Industrial.com replaces these parts and reduces the chance of drive failure and expensive downtime.
By early Saturday morning the drive was on load test after being been completely serviced and repaired and was ready to be returned to the North East complete with a 12 month warranty. The repaired AC drive was then returned to the North East on a same day service and fitted by the Orona engineer just hours before the show. Needless to say The Sage Gateshead was walking on the moon with delight at the professional and rapid response from Orona and Direct-Industrial.com.
