Best Packaging was called to the warehouse when the customer reported a malfunctioning film clamp in their Hercules stretch wrapper. When Best Packaging’s service technician arrived on site, he quickly recognized this was more than a simple mechanical error. The PLC on this Cousins machine had somehow lost all memory of its programming.
To further complicate the issue, the PLC on this particular Hercules stretch wrapper was so old, it was unable to be supported by Allen Bradley, the gold standard in programmable logic controllers. Without parts readily available for this obsolete system, the only options were to install a brand new PLC, or to rebuild one of the same vintage as the original.