Preventative Maintenance for Industrial Robots

Every robot needs pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance ensure top-lev­el per­for­mance and con­sis­ten­cy on the pro­duc­tion line. When robots do not have reg­u­lar pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance checks per­formed, it can cause parts and com­po­nents to break down or mal­func­tion, which can cause a slow­down or shut­down of your pro­duc­tion. Indus­tri­al robots that are prop­er­ly main­tained can last for many years, even decades, before need­ing to be replaced. By keep­ing a reg­u­lar pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance sched­ule, you are extend­ing the life of your robot exponentially.

Dif­fer­ent robot­ics com­pa­nies rec­om­mend dif­fer­ent amounts of time between pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance. For exam­ple, Fanuc Robot­ics states that planned pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance for your indus­tri­al robot should be per­formed every 3,850 hours or 12 months, whichev­er comes first for your robot. How­ev­er, KUKA Robot­ics rec­om­mends pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance after 10,000 hours for their robots. It is impor­tant to check the man­u­al for your spe­cif­ic robot to see what time frame is best.

No mat­ter what length of time your man­u­al rec­om­mends, by sched­ul­ing main­te­nance in this way, you are able to pre­vent cost­ly down­time that is unplanned due to mechan­ic issues. While planned main­te­nance may shut down pro­duc­tion for a short time, it is noth­ing com­pared to the pro­duc­tion time you may lose if your robot stops working.

So, what takes place dur­ing rou­tine pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance check­ups? Here are some rec­om­mend­ed main­te­nance tips to sched­ule through­out the life of your robot: 

• Back­ing up the con­troller memory
• Mon­i­tor robot in reg­u­lar motion, inspect­ing robot, har­ness and cables
• Inspec­tion of brake operation
• Check robot repeatability
• Lis­ten for exces­sive audi­ble vibra­tion and noise
• Grease joints, accord­ing to spe­cif­ic robot man­u­al (or ana­lyze grease if already performed)
• Visu­al inspec­tion of teach pen­dant and con­troller cables
• Check cable con­nec­tions, cool­ing fans, pow­er sup­plies, safe­ty equip­ment, and oth­er equip­ment for functionality
• Test and replace RAM and APC bat­ter­ies, if required
• Clean vents and fil­ters with com­pressed air
• Grease bush­ing and balancer
• Tight­en exter­nal bolts
• Replace bat­ter­ies in con­troller and robot arm when necessary

If any fur­ther action is required and the robot needs repairs, the tech­ni­cian should report the issues so arrange­ment can be made to make the need­ed repairs. Robots​.com also offers a recon­di­tion­ing and inspec­tion pro­gram with mul­ti­ple lev­el options.

With over 35 years of expe­ri­ence as a robot­ic inte­gra­tor, we under­stand the impor­tance of keep­ing your robot up and run­ning as smooth­ly and effi­cient­ly as pos­si­ble. Let our expe­ri­ence assist you in avoid­ing com­mon mis­takes asso­ci­at­ed with the care of your robot. Con­tact us today for more infor­ma­tion at 877−762−6881 or fill out a con­tact form and we will respond quick­ly to your inquiry.