Okuma Spindle Drive Mysteriously Stops Working

Okuma drive repairs

Did you ever think something as simple as a fan could hold up the completion of a huge order? No one at this major U.S. aviation manufacturer saw this coming as work on the order had been humming along smoothly. Until it wasn’t.

Our customer carefully tested the boards in the failing Okuma SDU-600W spindle drive by moving them to other machines fearing they were fried, but they worked. The problem “NM still not matching tach speed” persists and the project is stopped. What now?

After carefully crating the down drive, the manufacturer shipped the 100 lb. machine to ACS Industrial Services for a free electronics repair evaluation. Still worried, they request it be changed to a rush after it had already arrived at ACS. No problem for ACS…this is not uncommon and we really understand as the panic level can ratchet up with production deadlines looming.

Of course, it’s never as simple as “just a fan”. After evaluating the drive our tech team discovers that the big, evil problem holding up production is primarily a bad fan causing overheating, along with a fair bit of grease and dirt gumming up the works. The team replaces the bad cooling fan; cleans up the troubling grease and dirt; replaces some aging components; retests wiring connections, gate circuits, SCRs and the contactor. The whole unit is powered up and tested successfully.

Mystery solved and production is once again humming along. On to the next emergency!