MCE product review

[ians]

MCE did offer to replace everything ... unfortunatley I cannot afford to take a chance and therfore declined their offer.

[ians]

Removed the last of the MCE products today ...tomorrow I collect the new control panel and start building the new panel ... hopefully by monday morning it is ready to install ... by Tuesday we can start commisioning.

[ians]

I removed the entire control panel and all the wiring ... got an electrical engineer to assist ... put the panel on the workbench and stripped it wire by wire ... then stripped the components one by one ... checking for loose connections ... heating on terminals ... checking the bootlace terminals for discolouring ... checking the wiring in the slotted trunking ... checked the contacts on the omron relays ...all good.

Each terminal is tightened and marked with a red marker ...so i didnt expect to see any loose connections.

looking at the thermal images ... was expecting to see discolouring inside the overload relay ... there wasnt any.

The only fail parts which indicate there was a problem are the contactor coils ... the plastic in the centre of the coils have melted which restricts the movement of the metal ... and a thin black strip around the outsde of the coil showing signs that it overheated.


The conclusion : The contactors coils are failing for whatever reason ... none of the other equipment coils have failed (the ormon relays or level control)

I am going to reassmble the stuff and send it back to MCE ... I have still not had any feedback from MCE with regards to all the other contactors and overloads already sent to them.

[ians]

It seems like the issue with this product had something to do with operating temperature ... it seems it was destined to fail ... still waitng for my credits.

The new equipment operating in the same environment and ambient temperature ... just at a lower operating temperature.

Which reminds me ... as soon as I get a break I need to go scan the panel.

[ians]

Here we sit on the 1 August 2021 and MCE have still not credited the products returned.

The lesson we learn from this ... not only will the product fail ... the call out fees and time wasted replacing product ... lost time for the staff on site ... but you will not be refunded.

[ians]

After all that ( I still didnt get my refund) ... so I decided to request all the products which I sent back for a refund and built another another panel using the "working parts" ... someone needed a panel built as cheap as possible with no concern about quality ... MCE suited the description.

It is a vehicle hoist ... so not critical for the operation of a plant as in the original application ... and only activated for a short period of time ... so there shouldnt be any concerns with regard to overheating ... if it does break ... I have left a box of spares

So what did we learn from this ... make sure you select the right equipment for the right application.

[aecelectrical]

Sparkies using "affordable" brands with minimal reputation .... Stick to industry leaders where you have high demand costly equipment. Dont blame the brand blame yourself for choosing not so wisely. In this industry you also have to have decent spares as it is always a matter of downtime. That is what makes you proficient at your game! If i ever have to use certain affordable brands it will be higher rated and a temporary solution. We need to sleep peacefully at night,assumptions are the mother of all screw ups. Deal with everything in the worst case scenario and nothing will come back to bite you! You also dont want too many mixed brands in your panels that also reflects on you. Also using power monitors/comparitors will save you from loss of phases,surges,drops in voltage causing havoc etc

[aecelectrical]

Might not be running for long duration but may have consistent switching that also produces considerable spikes in current

[ians]

For the record ... I designed and built control panels for many years ... back then I only use Klochner Moeller ... finder ... omron etc. ... The installations were out in the sticks ... replacing components wasnt an option ... we designed and built to last ... this project was down the road ... I didnt the product would fail so often ... you live and learn.

The panel was rebuilt using Siemens products.

[ians]

I see it has already been 9 months and the plant runs 24/7.

I suppose using MCE for a hoist for example is a better option ... considering it goes up and stops and goes down and stops ... with such little use ... it should last 2 years