Protect Your Production: The Value of Condition Monitoring

Given the current economic climate, optimizing existing manufacturing assets is more important than ever. One effective way to ensure reliable production is to keep the machines in good working order using condition monitoring. 

Condition monitoring uses sensors and feedback systems to track key performance factors such as ambient temperature, vibration, humidity, flow, and other important aspects of machine performance. Custom alerts can be set in the system interface to notify maintenance or operators when a reading goes outside of acceptable parameters, helping identify issues before a machine fails.

Prevent wear and part misalignment, avoiding costly rework

As equipment ages and wears down, end users may notice reduced accuracy and resolution in machine movements, motors, and drive systems. This is especially common in material-handling robots used in welding applications.

Degradation in the axes of material-handling robots can affect part placement accuracy on welding jigs. Poor part placement may lead to collisions with other part components or improper placement in the welding jigs, resulting in minor bends or tears in the part material. When these damaged parts are welded into sub-assemblies, the bends or tears become part of the sub-assembly’s geometry, potentially leading to minor misalignment. Sometimes, these misaligned sub-assemblies pass visual inspection and move on to the next production stage. However, the misalignment and related components can cause tolerance stacking issues, resulting in interference problems during advanced assembly phases. If this happens at the end of chassis production, it could lead to the scrapping of an entire frame.

The ability to monitor and receive alerts about material robot movement issues can reduce the number of misaligned sub-assemblies leaving the factory floor. It also helps prevent catastrophic failures by enabling timely repairs or rebuilds instead of full equipment replacement, drastically reducing costly downtime for manufacturing facilities.