There are many ways to annihilate your industrial electronics. Likewise, there are equally as many to protect them. If you have ever fried your servo drive or your power supply for example, you might think the unit was defective to start with. Well, maybe. More likely it was caused by something ultimately preventable.
Here’s the by-no-means-complete list of common possibilities that may bring your servo motors, drives, circuit boards, CNC equipment, controls, and power supplies to their little electronic knees. The resulting damage may require industrial electronic repair services or, if catastrophic, the recycling bin.
Forewarned is forearmed: allow these troubles to exist in your plant and costly damage may occur:
- Poor, intermittent, or non-existent grounding
- Excessive RF noise
- Poor power factor
- Over/Under voltage conditions – Surges/Sags
- Water/Excessive moisture or humidity
- Extreme temperature exposure
- Energy spikes
- Magnets
- Loose connectors
- Incoming voltage problems
- Poor/damaged soldering
- Dirt/Grease/Grime accumulation
- Dust particle accumulation
- Electro Static Discharge (many causes for this, for more info see previous article: https://blog.acsindustrial.com/industrial-electronic-repair-services/tips-prevent-electrostatic-discharge-damage-electronics/ )
- Reverse polarity
- Defective/outdated battery cell(s)
- Weak/demagnetized motors
- Shorted motor coil
- Exceeding input voltage
- Corrosion
- Damaged – aged capacitors/discrete components
- Excessive vibration
- Over gearing
- DIY Repairs using inappropriate materials like scotch tape (not joking, this happens)
- Wiring insulation breakdown – short
- Physical damage/abuse/sabotage
- High voltage transients
- Improper powering up or down
- Improper connections such as between a motor, brake and encoder
- DIY testing with the wrong test equipment
- Handling drive equipment by its wire harness or shaft
If you find yourself on the wrong end of one of these situations and your equipment is behaving erratically or the “smoke genie” escaped, shut down properly and replace the
failing unit with a backup. The longer you run damaged/erratically performing equipment the worse the damage and the less repairable it becomes.
If your industrial electronics are having problems and are still under warranty, contact your OEM. If they are out of warranty, don’t despair. They are likely still repairable by an experienced industrial electronics repair house. They should offer free evaluations, accurate quotes and a warranty on both their parts and labor. They should also offer rush service for when you are really under the gun on time.
ACS Industrial Services is an independent expert industrial electronics repair service with facilities in Maryland and North Carolina. In addition to servicing all drives, ACS Industrial also provides PLC repairs, power supply repairs, circuit board repairs, servo motor and encoder repairs, touch screen and CRT monitor repairs, test equipment repairs, and much more.