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Editor's Notes

1. Today I am here to talk about how I helped the United States government make money, literally! This is not a story about how I increased efficiencies, generated more revenues, or anything like that. It’s actually about making hard cash.
2. So, how does the government make money? They print it! They print lots of it… everyday. Hopefully, it’s just being printed to replace the “old” money that’s taken out of circulation; otherwise, we could have some serious issues. But that’s good topic for another lightning talk.
3. Does anyone know where the US currency is printed? If you said the US Mint, you would be partially right, but they only make the coins. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is where the real money is printed.
4. So, why do they need my help to print money? They’ve been doing this for years without my help. Well, I was fortunate enough to get on a project where I drove from Upstate NY to Washington, DC every week (round trip) for about two years.
5. My job was to teach basic electrical and electronics skills to the maintenance technicians that work on the printing presses. It was up to them to learn about the machine specifics and how to fix any problems that arose.
6. During my time there, a very large and complex system was installed by the German company, KBA. This machine was about 50 yards long, printed the serial numbers and US seal on the notes, cut the sheets, and shrink-wrapped the money for shipment to the Federal Reserve.
7. Each one of the numbering blocks that were used to randomly create and print the serial numbers were extremely high-tech, electro-mechanical devices. There were a total of 100 numbering blocks on the machine, each consisting of more than 120 individual parts.
8. The machine was controlled by 22 programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and 32 servo motors and controllers. Each PLC monitored and controlled individual sections of the machine and fed to a central PLC.
9. This shows an overview of the entire network diagram for the system. If you look closely, you can clearly see how all of the systems interface with one another, and most of you can probably figure out how the system works just from this diagram.
10. Devices throughout the system communicated through network protocols, such as ArcNET, ProfiBus, Ethernet, and CS31. The 22 PLCs and 32 Servo Motor Controllers were connected to one another through these networks. You know, the basic stuff.
11. What I realized while working with the German engineers and installers was that the Bureau maintenance people were not at all familiar with German electrical and mechanical schematics and diagrams, and therefore had difficulty troubleshooting faults in the machine, which was costing the Bureau over $100,000 per week to keep the German support technicians on site to keep the machine running.
12. How did I resolve the problem? I figured I would need to write a training manual on how to read German (DIN) electrical and mechanical prints, and use that manual to train the Bureau maintenance technicians how to troubleshoot faults in the system.
13. I worked with the German installers and engineers for several months learning the system and teaching myself how to read German electrical and mechanical diagrams, which use the DIN standard. I think only one person in the room here can actually pronounce” what the DIN stands for. It is basically the German standard for creating machine prints and diagrams. Hendrick?
14. Luckily, I was able to go online and find a direct translation of the schematic symbols and terminology…from German to French. So, I now could choose German or French to translate the symbols and terminology to English.
15. In order to understand how to teach the maintenance technicians how to read the machine prints, I had to learn them myself first before I created the training manual. There were about 1277 pages of electrical prints and mechanical drawings.
16. This shows some of the details of part of an electrical print. I needed to learn what each of the symbols were, relate them to the equivalent ANSI (American) standard, and learn what all of the terminology stood for on the prints (which I had never seen before).
17. I redrew all the electrical symbols used in the prints, and created a comparison table for the technicians.
18. Some symbols were specific for this machine, or at least to the DIN standard, so I had to learn the function of these components so I could explain their operation as well as how to read them on the prints.
19. Once the manual was completed, I conducted training for the technicians so they could understand the system better and read the machine prints, which helped them minimize downtime on the machine when faults occurred, enabling them to print money. This first photo shows a “cash pack” of $1,600,000 (1.6 million).
20. And that is how I helped the US Government make money…literally.