servo drive repairs; – ACS Industrial Blog

Real Life From the Plant: C Axis drive not ok Error on Servo Drive

January 21, 2021

From the outside, this drive looks innocent enough.  But on the inside all HELL was breaking loose! “C Axis drive not ok Error” was the symptom reported.

But this Osai-Prima Electro Servo Drive 97942050N drive was in need of some serious repairs! Burned spots with burned traces were found inside, along with bad capacitors, bus-caps and bad I/O relay.

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What would cause all this in a servo drive?

Excessive heat, over or under voltage surges and sags and/or rises in equivalent series resistance values are all possibilities along with component aging. In the case of the burned traces, other causes could include previous use of inappropriate acid core solder causing a short, or contaminants such as metallic dust, common in manufacturing facilities.

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Are Industrial Automation and Robotics the Same Thing?

March 6, 2020

Well, yes and no! When we use “automation” and “robotics” in the same sentence, we are usually talking about industrial automation. That is – controlling the physical processes of manufacturing with non-human machinery.

That automated machinery is made up of numerous components including, but not limited to:

Teach Pendants
Monitors/HMI’s
Servo Motors
Drives
Axis Boards
Operator Control Panels
Wrist Assemblies
Processors
Spot Welding
Amplifiers
Power Supplies
Weld Guns
End of Arm Tooling
Circuit Boards

These components together create both physical machines and control systems that automate previously human tasks in an industrial process. If this sounds futuristic, it’s not! It’s here now and here to stay.

The CNC machines we are all familiar with are common examples of automation in manufacturing. Robots, however, take things quite a bit further.

How are robots impacting us?

Let your imagination run wild and then double that! The automation robotics market is expanding at a fantastic rate as robots replace humans in industry in the U.S. and abroad. For example, construction robotics alone are expected to grow 450% in the next five years, and similarly medical robots. This is mind altering for many of us!

So what exactly IS the difference between automation and robotics?

Automation — Automation involves the use of computer software, machines and/or other technology to carry out a task which was previously done by a human. There are many types of automation. These range from the mechanical to the fully virtual. And from the simple to the very complex. A recent tour I took of a major international cosmetics company plant was a great example of both simple and highly complex automation.
Robotics — Robotics incorporates multiple disciplines to design, build, program and use robotic machines to complete human tasks, using both physical elements and usually some type of artificial intelligence.

The two are typically interrelated, though not always. Robots are used to automate some physical tasks, such as in manufacturing.

Some good news!

These systems can be expensive but they can also save a lot of money in the long run. If you’ve invested a lot of money into your automation systems you will want them to last for a good, long time! The really good news is that this often-expensive equipment can be repaired when damaged.

Do you have questions or concerns about your robotics and automation equipment, or do you think it may need service? If it’s still under warranty, contact your OEM. If it is out of warranty, contact an independent industrial electronic repair center. They should offer free evaluations for your automation components and, if needed, a free quote for repairs. They should also provide repair reports and a good warranty that covers both parts and labor.

About the Author: ACS Industrial is an independent industrial electronic repair center providing repair services for automation equipment of most types and most all manufacturers including Fanuc repairs, Nachi repairs, Kawasaki automation repairs, ABB repairs, Yaskawa repairs, Sick repairs, Kuka repairs, Comau repairs, and Motoman repairs , as well as servo drive repairs, VFD drive repairs, teach pendant repairs, HMI and Operator Control repairs, servo motors, encoders, printed circuit board repairs, monitors and touchscreens, PLCs, test equipment, and much more. Our customer service team is available to answer your questions and help solve your industrial electronic repair concerns. Legacy equipment can be repaired! RUSH Service is available. You can reach them by calling 800-605-6419

Can Your Legacy Pacific Scientific Servo Equipment be Repaired?

January 3, 2020

In a word: Yes! Legacy Pacific Scientific servo equipment CAN typically be repaired! There’s a ton of really good Pacific Scientific servo equipment still out there in manufacturing plants being used every single day. You might also be wondering what ever happened to this excellent brand. Don’t worry! The story of the Pac Sci brand isn’t mysterious or unusual.

The Pac Sci equipment brand was purchased by Kollmorgen several years ago and until 2011 kept the Pacific Scientific branding and developed a few new products under the Pac Sci name. But, when the Danaher Corporation divested itself from the Pacific Scientific Aerospace business (a separate business from the Kollmorgen business) it included the sale of the Pacific Scientific brand name and logo. This forced Kollmorgen to remove all the Pacific Scientific branding and replace it with Kollmorgen branding. Simple, just business as usual. Pacific scientific servo drive

The good news is that your legacy Pacific Scientific equipment is usually repairable. And, also usually well worth repairing. Here’s a handy chart with a few part numbers of Pacific Scientific equipment that we frequently see in our shop for repairs with reference pricing based on previous repairs. Your repair may be slightly different depending on the amount of damage or cause of failure.

Pacific Scientific	SC323A001	Servo Drive	$2,174
Pacific Scientific	SC753A001-01	Servo Drive	$2,710
Pacific Scientific	SC902	Servo Drive	$1,789
Pacific Scientific	SC902-001-01	Servo Drive	$2,174
Pacific Scientific	SC903-001-01	Servo Amplifier	$1,672
Pacific Scientific	SC903-001-01	Servo Amplifier	$1,488
Pacific Scientific	SC905-001-01	Servo Drive	$2,304
Pacific Scientific	SC905-001-01	Servo Drive	$2,048

Do you have questions about your Pacific Scientific servo amplifier or drive? Do you think it may need service? If it is out of warranty, contact an independent industrial electronic repair center. They should offer free evaluations for your servo controller and, if needed, a free quote for repairs. They should also provide repair reports and a good warranty that covers both parts and labor.

If you want to find out more about identifying the problem with your Pacific Scientific, or any other servo drive, here’s a previous post with some helpful information.

About the Author: ACS Industrial is an independent industrial electronic repair center providing repair services for servo amplifiers and servo controllers of all types and most all manufacturers including Pacific Scientific and Kollmorgen repairs, as well as servo drive repairs, AC/DC drives, VFD drives, servo motors, encoders, printed circuit board repairs, monitors and touchscreens, PLCs, test equipment, and much more. Our customer service team is available to answer your questions and help solve your industrial electronic repair concerns. Legacy equipment can usually be repaired! RUSH Service is available. You can reach them by calling 800-605-6419

Real Life Stories: Sanyo Denki Drive Unit Down! Please Rush!

December 6, 2019

“Please rush this as fast as possible! We are down!”

We get it! We don’t like downtime either! It’s costly! Time to jump into action! Let’s get this Sanyo Denki Drive CFZ0A100DR4601 with error codes back to working order.

So what was wrong with this old and very dirty drive unit?

Mostly just that – age and dirt, lots of build up! There’s no getting around that! Testing showed numerous components had failed. To repair this drive would mean virtually rebuilding it. And that’s what our customer needed us to do!

We replaced many components including:

10 capacitors on all control boards, bus-cap, and IGBT
installed a new fan
reworked the gate circuits
tested and repaired the breaking /regenerative circuits
tested and repaired the relay’s contacts
tested the entire unit
Did we mention it was really dirty? Lots of cleaning to get rid of all the build up!

In just a few days this unit was back to work – practically brand new again! With a two year warranty! And best of all, our mid-west US customer reported success after installing their rebuilt Sanyo Denki drive! Their CNC shop was back to work machining both gray and ductile iron! Good stuff! We love our CNC machining customers!

Do you have questions or concerns about your servo drive, or you think it may need service? If it’s still under warranty, contact your OEM. If it is out of warranty, contact an independent industrial electronic repair center. They should offer free evaluations for your servo drive and, if needed, a free quote for repairs. They should also provide repair reports and a good warranty that covers both parts and labor. Need a little more information about identifying a problem with your servo drive? Go here for a previous post on the 7 Signs!

Is your Sanyo Denki drive giving you error codes? Not working? We can help!

About the Author: ACS Industrial is an independent industrial electronic repair center providing repair services for servo drives and motors of all types and most all manufacturers as well as for AC/DC drives, VFD drives, encoders, printed circuit board repairs, monitors and touchscreens, PLCs, test equipment, and much more. Their helpful and knowledgeable customer service team is available to answer your questions and help solve your industrial electronic repair concerns. Legacy equipment can be repaired! RUSH Service is available. You can reach them by calling 800-605-6419

How To Tell The Difference Between a Servo Controller and a Servo Drive or Amplifier?

October 30, 2019

Have you ever noticed that the terms servo controller, servo drive, and servo amplifier are often used interchangeably? This can be confusing!

Here is the explanation in very basic terms:

Technically, the Servo Drive (also called a Servo Amplifier) provides power to the Servo Motor. The Servo Controller provides the specific command to action. For example: Move 10 feet at a rate of 20 feet per minute. The Servo Amplifier takes that signal and provides the necessary power for the necessary time to accomplish that task. It does this while constantly monitoring the feedback from the Encoder. It has enough onboard control circuitry to interpret control and feedback signals.
Here’s where it gets a bit trickier – the Servo Amplifier and Servo Controller are sometimes incorporated into ONE device. This is likely the reason why these two terms get interchanged. Generally, they are independent units – one for control, and one for power and feedback.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLE:

For example, this recently repaired Anilam servo amplifier SA 301A (Drive) provides power to multiple servo motors (multiple axis).

The above Anilam servo amplifer (Drive) is connected to this repaired Anilam controller CC 516F that provides the commands for each axis used.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, you might have more questions!

What if they get damaged? Are they Repairable?

In this example, both of these units were repairable. Typically, the servo amplifier has a slightly higher repair success rate than the servo controller, but both are often repairable. The controller is more complicated and often contains several levels of OEM proprietary programming. The amplifier, if not catastrophically damaged, has a higher rate of repair success. It is always best to get a qualified industrial electronic repair service to evaluate your damaged servo amplifiers (drives) and servo controllers when considering whether to repair or replace.

Do you have questions or concerns about your servo controller or servo amplifier, or do you think it may need service? If it’s still under warranty, contact your OEM. If it is out of warranty, contact an independent industrial electronic repair center. They should offer free evaluations for your servo controller and, if needed, a free quote for repairs. They should also provide repair reports and a good warranty that covers both parts and labor.

About the Author: ACS Industrial is an independent industrial electronic repair center providing repair services for servo amplifiers and servo controllers of all types and most all manufacturers including Anilam repairs, as well as servo drive repairs, AC/DC drives, VFD drives, servo motors, encoders, printed circuit board repairs, monitors and touchscreens, PLCs, test equipment, and much more. Our customer service team is available to answer your questions and help solve your industrial electronic repair concerns. Legacy equipment can be repaired! RUSH Service is available. You can reach them by calling 800-605-6419

Troubleshooting and Repairs For Your Teknic SST-1500-561 Servo Drive

August 29, 2019

Small but mighty, servo drives are critical players on the industrial playing field. These drives are common in CNC machining, factory automation, and robotics . The Teknic SST-1500-561 servo drive is a frequent flyer – meaning there are a lot of them out there working hard (see photo). If your drive faults out you will know it! Production pretty much comes to a stop!

These Teknic servo drives are good, solid equipment. But, like anything getting hard use in a harsh environment, these drives eventually break down. What should you look for? What should you expect? Here’s some answers:

What Happened?

Here’s are some common failures for these drives. Do any of these sound familiar?

DC voltage overload, have a blinking green fault indicator
Count 5 ERROR
LED Blinks 5 times
Currently running with the z axis drive but having intermittent problems, giving an xb axis drive fault
Blink Count 3 ERROR. “Over Current/Voltage” message displayed on m/c control
5 Blink count, as soon as the motor is signaled to move
3 blink count, will not power off during a reboot
Z-axis controller ERROR message – servo stop z-axis

That all sounds like major frustration on the plant floor, but there’s a fix for that! These Teknic drives are usually repairable for a reasonable cost. The repair cost is usually less than it would cost to buy a new one or refurbished one.

Typically you will find aged and blown components inside, along with trace and solder damage. Occasionally this type of damage may be visible to the naked eye. More often it requires testing to find which components are blown and which are about to go next which is an important part of a good repair!

Common repairs for these drives:

Mosfets and capacitors replaced
Regulator and the capacitors replaced
Regulator, capacitors, driver ic replaced, repaired cold solder joints
Recapped, reflowed cracked solder joints, replaced driver ICs and Mosfets
Replaced shorted IGBTs, shorted Mosfet and 5 others that work in sequence on an output
Recapped and rebuilt output circuit replacing all optos, FETs, and driver ICs
Replaced Mosfets capacitors and driver ICs

These servo drive problem descriptions give you the picture – recurring component failure. Typically, the culprits are the capacitors, mosfets, regulators, ICs, and IGBTs. A thorough testing, cleaning and replacement of blown and aging components can bring these Teknic SST-1500-561 servo drives back to life quickly.

Have Questions?

Do you have questions or concerns about your servo drive, or you think it may need service? If it’s still under warranty, contact your OEM. If it is out of warranty, contact an independent industrial electronic repair center. They should offer free evaluations for your servo amp and, if needed, a free quote for repairs. They should also provide repair reports and a good warranty that covers both parts and labor.

Repair of quality industrial equipment like this Teknic servo drive can be a great way to save money and time, as well as be environmentally responsible. If your Teknic SST-1500-561 servo drive needs repairs, we can help!

About the Author: ACS Industrial Services is an independent industrial electronic repair center providing repair services for drives of all types and most all manufacturers including servo drive repairs, AC/DC drives, VFD drives, servo motors, encoders, printed circuit board repairs, monitors and touchscreens, PLCs, test equipment, and much more. Our customer service team is available to answer your questions and help solve your industrial electronic repair concerns. Legacy equipment can be repaired! RUSH Service is available. You can reach them by calling 800-605-6419.

What Have We Done Lately – Mitsubishi Repairs!

June 20, 2019

In our experience, Mitsubishi industrial electronic products are pretty great products. Even older, legacy Mitsubishi products are usually WELL worth getting Mitsubishi repairs.

Many of our ACS customers have legacy Mitsubishi products in their plants and shops. Lately, we’ve had lots of damaged or malfunctioning Mitsubishi industrial electronics in our shop for repairs– servo amps, inverters, operator panels, circuit board assemblies, servo drives, PLCs, controllers, and power supplies – just to name a few!

Why so many? No, not because they are all failing at once! More likely just because there are SO many good industrial electronic Mitsubishi products out there in use. And our customers know the value of maintaining their equipment. These units may no longer be under the OEM warranty, but they are also nowhere near needing to be replaced. They are still perfectly good!

Electronic repairs and refurbishing are a great way to keep good, strong Mitsubishi and other equipment in place. This can potentially save you a ton of money over buying NEW equipment that could be better spent elsewhere in your plant!

So what have we done lately?

Here’s a few examples of successful electronic Mitsubishi repairs that have arrived on our docks for lately!

Mitsubishi Operator Control Panel E-1061 – arrived with a broken screen, bad battery, bad IC and a lot of dirt/wear and tear all of which was replaceable/repairable!

Mitsubishi Servo Drive MDS-B-V2-4520 – arrived making noise in the z axis which kept getting worse and alarming out with an overcurrent Z alarm. This very dirty unit was full of weak and bad components including all of the capacitors, IGBT, and heat sinks – all replaced.

Mitsubishi PLC FX0S-14MT-D12SS – this damaged PLC required new capacitors, driver ic, resistors, and a dc to dc converter

Mitsubishi Power Supply MDS-B-CV-185 – damaged power supply arrived with a voltage problem, 41 alarm, and flashing LEDs; intermittent current – altogether this successfully repaired power supply needed replaced resistors in internal contactor circuit, replaced capacitors on the control board plus replacement of 7 other capacitors and replacement of broken leads that were not making contact.

Mitsubishi Controller F9421500 – this sturdy but damaged controller arrived covered inside and out with grease and dirt with power problems and the ready light not flashing. Repairs needed included replacements for all of the capacitors, diodes, repair of cracked solder joints, plus a thorough cleaning/degreasing – which every unit gets!

Knowledge is Power

At ACS we believe knowledge is power. If you are searching for a repair center for your damaged industrial electronics check first to see if your equipment is still under warranty. If it is still under warranty contact the OEM about repairs. If it is out of warranty, contact an independent industrial electronic repair center to find out if they are a good fit for your company and your particular repair needs. They should offer free evaluations for your damaged equipment and, if needed, a free quote for repairs (no bench fees!). They should also provide repair reports if requested and a good warranty of at least one year (more would be better!) that covers both parts AND labor.

About the Author: ACS Industrial Services is an independent industrial electronic repair center providing repairs for all types of industrial electronic equipment and most all manufacturers including operator control repairs, circuit board repairs, touch screen repairs, power supplies, VFD AC & DC drive repairs, servo motors, CNC equipment, encoders, monitors, test equipment, and much more. RUSH SERVICE is available and a comprehensive 2-Year Warranty covers most repairs. The super-helpful customer service team is available to answer your questions and help solve your toughest industrial electronic repair problems. You can reach them by calling 800-605-6419. Or check out ACS’s incredible new easy-to-search Repair Catalog!