On our first day at Edelvives, we started with safety training and a tour of the facility. Edelvives is a large printing company that produces school books, novels, and more. The process is fascinating: they print on large sheets of paper, then either glue, stitch, or use plastic spirals to bind them together. They use both hardcover and softcover finishes, and we got to see the entire machinery line in action.

Most of our time was spent helping our mentor, Jorge, with diagnosing and fixing mechanical and electrical issues. In a printing plant, vibrations are constant, which often causes sensors to shift or contactors to fail.

One of the machines we worked on had a faulty contactor. It wasn’t sending the correct signal to the motor, so the paper wouldn’t move along the line. We also spent two hours investigating an “automatic track” issue where the paper would randomly stop mid-action. Even though we waited for it to fail, the machine behaved perfectly while we were watching! In the end, we cleaned the low-paper sensors, and that seemed to do the trick for now.

The most interesting (and stressful) task involved a machine with a failing transformer. The output voltage was only 65V instead of the required 125V. Jorge found a replacement, but since it wasn’t the exact same model, the wiring was slightly different.

While we weren’t right there for the final wiring, we certainly smelled the aftermath. Jorge accidentally wired it incorrectly, and when the power was turned on, the smell was—as he described it—like a “burnt pizza left in the oven for three hours.” We first replaced the transformer, but the machine still didn’t work. We then realized the mistake had fried the motherboard as well. After replacing both the transformer and the motherboard, the machine finally roared back to life. Talk about a costly but valuable lesson!

One thing that surprised us was the strict work environment. Other maintenance coworkers warned us: “Never let the boss see you with your hands in your pockets or on your phone.” The pressure on the maintenance team is particularly high. While most workers have regular breaks, the maintenance guys often have so much work that they feel they have to hide from the boss just to grab some lunch. It’s a very intense work culture where the pressure to keep the machines running is constant.