Qualitrol can help you recover from Hurricane Ian

In late September of this year, Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc on the US east coast, destroying homes, businesses, and personal property. Key electronic components have been damaged after spending days and weeks sitting in salt water and sand, a state that is not friendly to electronic components, as industries start to clean up and get back to work.

Several businesses have gotten in touch with us asking to replace PLC components that were allegedly wrecked by storm damage. However, before they are discarded, we have urged them to send the broken PLC units to us for inspection.

The parts for the GE Field Control were, as you can see from the photographs, in the worst possible condition. They were even worse than parts that had experienced the infamous wash-down while the panel door is open condition that we occasionally encounter. All pieces have obvious corrosion and rust. Each board's detritus, including sand and any loose parts, was then brushed off. After that, we ran each unit through a cycle in an ultrasonic cleaner; several parts required an additional or third cycle to completely remove the corrosion and grime.

After that, each unit spent 20 minutes in a solvent/degreaser bath. After being cleaned, the units were submerged in an alcohol bath to remove any remaining liquid. After drying for 12 hours, the units were checked again, and the cleaning process was repeated if necessary. After that, each item was evaluated in our testing lab by one of our senior PLC technicians to see if it was functioning, repairable, or needed to be trashed. This was done according to factory requirements. Surprisingly, the majority of the devices we cleaned and tested passed the factory inspection!

Here are some images of the completed units: