Depo Motor Encoder Cable Replacement – Mould Making Industry Manufacturing Improvements

On-Site Visit To Correct Issues With Faulty Siemens Cables, Replaced With High Quality HEIDENHAIN Cables

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During the last week, EEC Ltd were called into a local mould making company that needed to make improvements to an existing manufacturing set up, with a machine made by Depo. The company needed to replace existing Siemens motor encoder cables with a better, higher quality HEIDENHAIN option. The Depo machine in question was out of production due to a catastrophic spindle failure taking-out not only the spindle, but also the Siemens LT module and 3 x 100amp fuses on the main circuit board.

A third-party service company were commissioned to remove the faulty spindle. During this work, it was noticed that the Siemens motor encoder cables were breaking up, requiring specialist attention which the third-party were unable to address. At this point the customer contacted EEC to attend and investigate the replacement of not only the spindle motor encoder cable, but also another 3 axis encoder cable – a precautionary undertaking, since this cable was of a similar age to the cables causing issues.

Upon investigation EEC determined that all of the motor encoder cables were breaking down and it was only a matter of time until failure would occur – taking the Depo machine out of production further down the line – and possibly more than once as cables failed in turn. Since the Depo machine was currently out of production with the spindle being removed for repair, it was deemed sensible to replace all 4 motor encoder cables to reduce overall downtime on the machine, and to mitigate the possibility of the machine being out of service on more than one instance.

Experience gained working with Siemens motors and cables dictated that EEC engineers needed to be careful with regards to pin rotation compared to standard HEIDENHAIN cabling. Once EEC had determined an appropriate cable with the correct connectors at each end, a wiring diagram was printed, with the pin outs of the replacement HEIDENHAIN cable and buzzed out the existing Siemens cable to ensure that the correct pins were connected to each other at both ends. Once EEC had determined that the appropriate cable and connectors were wired correctly, EEC placed an order. Four 10 meter replacement cables from HEIDENHAIN Germany were airfreighted direct to EEC and arrived next-day – testament to HEIDENHAIN efficiency!

EEC Engineers swiftly arrived at our mould making customer’s premises to install the replacement motor encoder cables. Upon arrival EEC immediately initiated work by removing the covers, and began to dismantle the caterpillar track on the Depo machine. It was important to improve access to the existing Siemens motor encoder cables for removal, and to aid in reinstallation of the new, replacement motor encoder cables.

Upon removal of the Depo machine covers, it was evident that the Siemens cables were in even worse shape than was outwardly evident. The outer sheathing was coming away from the cables in flakes and chunks. They were literally clinging on to their last breath. Within an hour or so, EEC engineers had removed all 4 of the Siemens cables and began to reinstall the replacement HEIDENHAIN motor encoder cables. The process of replacing the motor encoder cables was a relatively simple task due to accessibility within the machine and other cabling. EEC engineers made a minor cable routing adjustment through the caterpillar track – re-routing the spindle motor encoder cable. The available space was already very tight with other cabling and air hoses, so this cable was run through the caterpillar track on the other side of the head to give all of the cables and hoses plenty of room.

Once the replacement cables were run through the machine, the covers cleaned and reinstalled, EEC engineers reconnected the motor encoder cables into the HEIDENHAIN control. The machine at this juncture was awaiting reinstallation of the Spindle and Siemens LT module, which were being repaired. With EEC’s work complete, the third party company completed the work once the spindle and LT module repairs were completed. The customer was happy to back up and running with their Depo Machine.

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