A.G.T. Acquires Company Vehicles
Advanced Gauging Technologies went through some exciting growth changes beginning in July. Some of these changes we will discuss in later newsletters but one of the most exciting was the addition of two new company owned travel vehicles for our field service engineers. Prior to this they had been using their own personal vehicles for travel. Company owned vehicles allow us to streamline expenses and save our employees from rapid devaluation of their person vehicles.
After a lengthy selection process which involved balancing the wants of the service engineers (sporty V8’s, twin turbochargers, 700 horsepower, etc…) with the needs of the company (low cost, high fuel efficiency, reliable, easy to maintain) we finally decided on a pair of Chevrolet Cruze ECOs.
Our new 2012 Cruze ECOs were designed for maximum fuel efficiency. Over the past couple of months they have been averaging over 40 miles per gallon in our real world experience. This helps us control fuel costs while the 1.4L turbocharged engines, Z-link rear suspensions and manual transmissions still allow our service guys the ability to scratch the performance itch when the urge strikes. Sporty, economical, compact and yet still capable of carrying all of our spare parts, our choice of the Cruze ECO has proven to be the perfect compromise between our Lamborghini taste and Yugo budget.
Multifunction Board Sale!
The multifunction board is the heart of the electronics shelf on the AGT400. It performs many functions (hence the name) which include, among other things, receiving, processing and passing on voltages from the detector head, tachometer and power supplies to the gauge computer. It houses various integrated chips, resistors, and other components that are critical to the operation and precision of the thickness gauge. When it was originally designed by A.G.T. these boards were produced using individual wires between each lead and assembled manually. This “wire wrapping” technique allowed us to assemble multifunction boards in house and change and develop them on the fly but they were massively labor intensive to create. Even worse, they were a nightmare to diagnose or repair due to the myriad of wires and complexity of the board.
In 2006 we developed a printed circuit design for the multifunction board. The printed circuit board decreased production time as well as reduced diagnostic time during failures. It also made our gauges less prone to the ravages of temperature fluctuations which over time cause the individual wires on the wire wrap version to become brittle and eventually fail. Some of these older wire wrap boards, while still working, are approaching fifteen years old now and as they fail we replace them with the new printed circuit version. The best time to replace them, however, may be during your semi-annual service visit instead of an emergency service call.
To help you make the switch, if you have an older gauge with a wire wrap multifunction board, our field service engineers will recommend a replacement printed circuit multifunction board during your next semi-annual inspection. We will offer a one-time 10% part discount and offer free labor to replace the board during that visit.