Ken Schunk Ken's Schunk Page 'o InformationSpinning Macintosh


Hello, and welcome to my page of background knowledge about myself. I can only assume you wandered in here accidentally, or perhaps from one of my other pages. If so, greetings!

I live in Saratoga Springs NY, and work for Graybar Electric Company as an Automation Sales Specialist. Here is a more complete history:

1975-1977: Eastern Michigan University. Although I started there planning on an engineering career, I soon switched to Computer Science. Classes included FORTRAN, ALGOL, COBOL and DEC PDP-10 Assembly Language. I couldn't take C - it wasn't taught anywhere yet!

1977-1986: US Navy. Completed Nuclear Power and Electrician training, served aboard the USS Flasher (SSN-613) for three years. From 1982 to 1986 I worked at the Kesslering Site in West Milton as an Engineering Watch Supervisor and section leader, training students on nuclear power plant operations.

1986-1998: Troy Belting and Supply (later Troy Energy and Automation). I started in the motor shop doing electrical repairs, but soon moved to the new industrial automation group. I taught myself Autocad (version 1.72 on an IBM XT, and if you panned or zoomed it had to regen) and PLC programming. When I left Troy I was Director of Technical Services, in charge of the programmers and designers.

1998-2001: Graybar Electric Company. Albany NY office. Industrial Automation Specialist. I provided sales and technical support for customers using Phoenix Contact, Modicon and Square-D products.

2001-2002: Graybar Electric Company. New York District. Industrial Automation Specialist. Sales, marketing and technical support for Automation and AC Drives for the northern part of the NY District (Albany, New Jersey, NY City and Long Island).

2002-Present: General Control Systems, Inc.. Systems Engineer. Design, programming and commisioning of control systems. Projects include toxic gas monitoring systems for IBM, waste water system for Elbow Beach, Bermuda, and controls for RPI's new boiler.


Some Past Projects

Nashua Tape Adhesive SystemAdhesive production system with 7 networked computers for operator interfaces and a Siemens PLC. This system ran InTouch from Wonderware. The system worked great until the company was bought out and closed.

Sortation system for a polymers manufacturer (things like paint brush bristles). Three computers running custom Turbo Pascal code (about 40K lines of code, and this was the DOS days), linked on a LAN with a network DBMS system. The system accepted input for scheduling from another computer system for scheduling, printed work setup sheets and bar code labels, monitored machine production and coordinated the shipping systems. The packages were scanned, weighed and sorted into lanes automatically. The system ran for about 7 years before being replaced by another system I wrote...

...the replacement sortation system. This one runs under Windows using Delphi. The sortation end does the same basic things, except the data is logged into an AS-400 computer located in Boston. Or maybe Burlington now. Most of the front end of the other system (bar code printing, etc.) was replaced by a new (and expensive) MRP system.

Littleford Plastic CompounderPlastic Compounding system, again with a Siemens PLC and InTouch. More custom code, this time via Delphi, to link into an external recipe management system.

Paper Machine system with AB PLC-5 and This system controlled the ABB drives that ran the paper machine. Two Intellution workstations provided control at either end of the machine for the operators.

Wire cladding monitoring system. This one used a Siemens PLC and Intellution (DOS version). We needed SPC tracking the Intellution couldn't do, so I wrote C code to interface with Intellution to collect, log and graph data.

Twin Rivers Fabric Washing SystemFabric washing system. Modicon Quantum PLC, Concept programming software and InTouch. About 30 networked VFD drives controlled via the PLC for a coordinated drive system. Control of the fabric tension was accomplished using Fuzzy Logic control blocks.

Sterilizer Control System. This runs on a SixNet RTU system, and is written in C. Monitors thermocouples and pressure sensors to control sterilization chambers for lab and hospital equipment.

Various versions of the Krofta Sandfloat units, from their first automated ones in 1987 to the latest one installed in the town of Coxsackie. Modicon PLC, Concept software and Magelis operator interface systems.

In addition to the industrial control projects, I had written a small graphics package for the old Tandy Color Computer (in 6809 and Pascal), and several utility programs for selecting, designing and pricing automation systems. These have been written in C or Delphi.


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