Robot Maintenance and Vigo Grease

There’s no deny­ing that robot grease is a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of indus­tri­al robot main­te­nance. It is impor­tant to use the appro­pri­ate grease for pre­ci­sion reduc­tion gears and change it out peri­od­i­cal­ly. Even when you play by the rules, there can still be grease problems.

VIGOGREASE REO, a new Japan­ese robot grease, aims to elim­i­nate some of the issues asso­ci­at­ed with pre­vi­ous robot grease options. While it con­tains many of the same ingre­di­ents as oth­er grease mix­tures, the Vigo recipe is report­ed to offer supe­ri­or performance. 

Mak­ing the Switch to Vigo Grease:

If you pur­chase a new Japan­ese man­u­fac­tured robot — Motoman, Fanuc, Nachi, or Pana­son­ic robot — chances are it will use VIGO grease (part num­ber A98L-0040 – 0174#16KG). This rel­a­tive­ly new robot gear lubri­cant is now used for Nabtesco reduc­tion gears on new robots. Old­er robot mod­els will still rely on MolyWhite.

Vigo Vs. MolyWhite:

Moly­White, a het­ero­geous mix­ture of grease and oil, has long been a stand­by for lubri­cat­ing robot­ic gears. How­ev­er, the oil tends to sep­a­rate from the mix­ture and leak out of the seals, which are designed to keep out grease, not oil. The break­down of Moly­White robot grease can be caused by heat and oth­er factors.

“A lot of times this makes it look like robot seals are bro­ken when it fact they are fine. I believe the VIGO grease is meant to help alle­vi­ate this issue,” said Robots​.com engi­neer, Jar­rod Bichon. 

The Vigo grease mix­ture is slight­ly altered from Moly­White, con­tain­ing a larg­er quan­ti­ty of EP (extreme pres­sure) addi­tives, in this case Mollyb­de­num com­pound and zinc com­pound. Accord­ing to Bichon, Vigo grease appears to be less vis­cous than Moly­White, which may be one rea­son for its supe­ri­or per­for­mance when it comes to robot reduc­tion gears. 

Avoid Cost­ly Gear Problems:

While Vigo is more expen­sive than oth­er vari­eties of robot grease, it has the poten­tial to offer a much bet­ter ROI. With­out the prop­er robot grease, reduc­tion gears can break down and jam. Keep sched­uled reminders to check gears and pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance checks to extend the life of your robot. Always fol­low the guid­ance pro­vid­ed in your spe­cif­ic robot manual. 

“There is so much rapid dis­place­ment of the grease in a closed cav­i­ty, it has to be able to with­stand the envi­ron­ment,” said Bichon. ​“If the wrong grease is used, heat and stress on the gear com­po­nents will cause the failure.”

To pur­chase VIGOGREASE REO (Vigo grease) and oth­er robot greas­es such as MolyWhite, 

Vis­it Robots​.com’ parts sec­tion or call 877−762−6881.