Why Should Failure Analysis Be Conducted on Industrial Robot Faulty Parts? From On-site Repair to Closed-loop Risk Management for Similar Cases
Replacing faulty components only restores production; failure analysis identifies root causes such as overheating, contamination, cable stress, and power supply anomalies, helping multi-brand robot production lines reduce the risk of repeated downtime.
After an industrial robot experiences downtime, on-site personnel typically prioritize replacing components such as drive modules, power supplies, fans, cables, or teach pendants. The restoration of equipment operation does not mean the fault has been closed-loop. If old parts are scrapped directly without inspection, root causes such as overheating, contamination, power fluctuations, or installation stress may persist, leading to repeated downtime for ABB, FANUC, KUKA, YASKAWA, and other brand robots.
01. First, Preserve On-site Fault Information
Before disassembling parts, export alarm logs, record the fault time, robot posture, operating mode, ambient temperature, and recent maintenance operations. Photograph the inside of the control cabinet, connectors, indicator lights, and component installation positions. Label ports before removing cables. If the fault only occurs during specific movements or under certain loads, also save the corresponding program segments and production cycle times to avoid losing conditions for reproduction.
02. What Clues Can Old Part Appearance Provide?
Check circuit boards for localized discoloration, burning, corrosion, dust accumulation, and liquid residue. Inspect connector terminals for looseness, oxidation, or pin retraction. Dust accumulation on fan blades and bearing seizure may cause reduced heat dissipation. Damage to cable sheaths from crushing, bending, or shield layer breaches may cause intermittent communication or encoder feedback anomalies. For mechanical components, focus on abnormal wear debris, grease condition, seal leaks, and stress marks on mounting surfaces.
03. Distinguish Between Component Damage and External Inducing Factors
Drive unit alarms are not necessarily caused by the drive unit itself; also check motor windings, brakes, cable insulation, power connections, and mechanical load. After a power module is damaged, simultaneously inspect input power supply, grounding, cabinet temperature rise, and heat dissipation channels. Measurement methods, test voltages, and judgment criteria must be executed according to the corresponding brand's technical documentation; parameters cannot be applied across different models.
04. Perform Comparative Verification After Repair
After replacing or repairing components, first conduct low-speed trial operation under safe conditions, then gradually restore automatic programs and actual loads. Compare current trends, temperature rise, noise, vibration, and alarm records before and after repair, and check safety circuits, zero points, tool coordinates, and process results. Completing only a power-on test cannot prove the robot's stability under continuous production conditions.
05. Apply Failure Conclusions to Robot Maintenance
Repair reports should clearly state fault phenomena, inspection evidence, corrective actions, and retest results, and categorize root causes as component aging, environmental impact, installation issues, or external system anomalies. If the same production line uses identical components, schedule filter cleaning, terminal tightening, cable inspections, and condition sampling. This transforms industrial robot repair from a one-time part replacement into a traceable, closed-loop maintenance process.
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