Archive for April 2013

Faults with any of these devices will prevent the motors from starting. Here are the items to check first:

– E-stop is pressed. This is easy to miss on a machine with mulitple E-stops.

– Saw cover hood hasn’t latched correctly. Give a gentle lift on the hood, and then press downward lightly.

– The emergency bar has tripped but the switch didn’t reset correctly. Carefully lift the bar and then press it downward. If this doesn’t reset the switch, then check the roller arm on the switch itself.

– Servo or inverter tripped. Check the servos and/or inverters to see if the drive healthy circuits are okay. Depending on the unit in question, this may show as a fault code on the display or a lit LED indiciating a specific fault. Note the code and reset the unit.

– Circuit overload / breaker has tripped.

After verfiying those items are functioning properly, it’s time to pull out the schematics and a multimeter. Give me a call at 608-397-9517 or email me at dan@dtmmachine.com if you need assistance.

Obviously. maintenance is important. But there is a simple way to reduce maintenance time and cost: ensure your dust collection system is up-to-snuff. Among the payoffs for making it correct from the start:

– Minimize the slippery mess on the floor to help lessen the chance of injury to personnel.

– Reduce the chance for dust to work its way into the electrical components, a frequent cause of machine ‘gremlins’.

– Reduce the airborne dust that makes its way throughout the shop to other work areas.

– Maintenance and repairs are performed faster without first having to clear a large amount of dust and grime out of the work area, thus increasing up-time.

– Reduced wear of rollers, bearings. chains, and other metal-on-metal moving parts.

When planning your dust collection be sure to plan for the proper airflow at the machine; the machine manufacturer can provide you with the draw requirements. Try to minimize the number of bends in the piping, and 45-degree bends are generally preferable to 90-degree bends. Install a clean-out so trims that clog the pipe may be easily removed. And install a shop-vac-style port and attach a long hose to provide a vacuum for machine clean-up.