The shutdown period is one of the busiest for any factory, even though there’s barely anyone on the site. This is because of all the services, repairs, and other activities that can only be actioned when machinery is not in operation. Servicing servo motors at regular intervals ensures your factory’s productivity is never compromised. In this article, we discuss a few reasons why servo motors should be serviced, the three best times to service your servo motors, and how to arrange expert servo motor servicing in South Africa.

Why should you service your servo motors?

Let’s face it: downtime costs you. Getting up and running after a catastrophic failure is sometimes a matter of life and death for your company. The main reason you service your servo motors is so that they don’t let you down when you need them most. Servicing servo motors is also how you get the most out of each unit, instead of the alternative which is to avoid servicing servo motors only to pay even more to replace them when they break down prematurely.

The 3 best times to service servo motors

  1. During your shutdown period
    Shutdown is the best time to service servo motors, where there is enough time to get the job done properly instead of rushing when parts break down unexpectedly. Machines will be down anyway, so why not service them while they are?
  2. When your factory upgrades
    Another opportunity to service your plant’s servo motors is when you’re upgrading your machinery with new components or systems. There will be inevitable downtime, so you could use this time to attend to other important components, like your servo motors.
  3. If machines are underperforming
    Don’t let underperforming machines eat into your potential productivity and profits. Instead, service them at the first sign of performance deterioration, on a public holiday or another downtime opportunity.

What does a servo motor service involve?

    • Benchmarking
      To measure how much better a servo motor performs after being serviced, its performance should be tested at the outset of the project.
    • Encoder Testing
      Encoder functionality testing and retrieval of electrical angle off of the encoder.
    • Motor Winding Analysis
      Motor winding analysis using special equipment that performs Insulation, surge and resistance testing
    • Disassembly
      Next comes carefully disassembling the unit into individual parts, assessing each closely to determine if any are reusable in their condition
    • Repair or replace
      Parts that can be saved are repaired or refurbished, and parts that can’t be repaired are removed and replaced with new parts.
    • Assembly
      The second-to-last step of a servo motor service involves reconstructing the disassembled unit. Your services will contain cleaning and respraying of the entire motor.
    • Encoder Re-alignment
      The encoder is then re installed onto the servo motor and re tested to make sure full functionality is present, the encoder is then re aligned to the original electrical angle to ensure optimal performance between your servo motor and servo drive

Get your servo motors serviced over shutdown

We aim for fast failure analysis and rectification so that your business can be up and running again as soon as possible. Our repair specialists have years of hands-on technical training and practical repair knowledge. Our goal is to get your operation up and running again as smoothly and as quickly as possible. Contact Motion Tronic to get servo motors serviced over shutdown.