R30-iB Maintenance

Your list is very good and covers most of the typical failures. You'll have to break down each component based upon cost, availability and risk. Some items may be repaired in house (e-stop unit), while other such as the CPU may not. If I had to add anything I would recommend a spare pulse encoder and (unfortunately) an axis 2 RV. You may also consider RMP cable sets, depending on your cable trays and such.

I'm not sure how critical your 4 robots are, but it may be worth investing in a spare robot and/or cabinet to rob parts from (not sure on your system pricing, but spare parts are expensive as crap).

Mechanical unit cable. I believe they are suggest replacement on a 4 year PM cycle, but Ive seen customers go 20 years without doing it once. Might be worth having one on hand and replace it on an as needed basis.

I would put the E-Stop Unit and Servo Amp at the top of my list.

This may be stating the obvious, but add Fanuc recommended grease & industrial grade batteries.

Speak with Fanuc and see what delivery times and expediting costs are for the parts and compare this to the cost of downtime. Good info to have when negotiating with others for spare part money. CSaunders makes a good point regarding a used robot system as a spare.

Don't forget to prevent issues. At 4 yrs, hopefully the robots have had the grease exchange done - Fanuc is known for not completely filling some of the grease cavities when the robots are assembled. Careful with the wrist of the R-2000iC, unlike the previous R-2000's, it has a separate inlet for axis J6.

Optimizing robot paths and motion along with reducing unnecessary safety stops will save wear on the manipulator.

Proper fusing and transient protection of I/O, safety chains and communication will help.

As was said, you have to know what risk the company can take. 48+ hours D/T is painfull for most automotive companies (means pretty expensive).

If you can handle 48h D/T it can be covered by service contract with FANUC service center. The units from your list are handled in FANUC warehouse and could be delivered in 24h. Those are my experiences from middle EU region.

Anyway, discuss it with your local FANUC service center.

Could you good folks recommend a good vender for spare parts? I am looking at stocking an E-Stop Unit. Debating if I should get the whole unit, or just the magnetic contactors.

Vendor depends on whether you are looking for used or new, untested or tested, as-is or refurbished.

Hard to recommend whole unit or contactors when we don't know what controller you have.

R-J3 likely to be contactors but with R-30iB/R-30iB+ and R-30iA & newer Mates, it more likely to be the PCB. Getting a whole unit can take some guess work out of troubleshooting. Depends on what your company's downtime tolerance & costs are.

Thank you Skooter, we have the 15 year old R-30iA controller, which started to intermittently display the Srvo-348 dcs mcc off alarm code. So far, a power cycle and a few taps on the E-Stop unit would resolve the issue, but I am suspecting it is ether the relay switch on the PCB or the contactor itself that are reaching the end of their life cycle.

We previously order through our integrator, but they seem to be charging a premium. For our company, they would prefer new stock. I will then refurbish the old unit as a backup. I have suggested getting a used controller as a backup, but the management is not keen on the idea.

I am wondering other than ordering directly from Fanuc is there a reasonably priced vender that you would recommend. Thank you in advance.

Outside of Fanuc for the R-30iA, finding new is going to be a surplus unit purchased from Fanuc at one time but not used and available for sale. An internet search of your part # will give options you can sort thru looking for new. Price is the big consideration.

If you're open to refurbished then there are still lots of choices including Fanuc. Stick with a company having the robot systems to test them with after being repaired/refurbished and backs them up with a good warranty and make it right attitude.

You may want to choose a company that also has good robot knowledge. When you're down, making a phone call can get quicker response than the good folks on the forum.

Good customer service, setting your company on an account if making multiple buys, available field service, etc. are also considerations.

Sorry for being indirect but I know quite a few people and it's hard to choose among friends or even your own employer.

Thank you Skooter, I understand the possible conflict of interest.

I completely agree with finding a company with good robotic knowledge and warranty. I have since ordered the part from our original integrator. They do charge a premium, but are also reliable.

I have also purchased the PCB as well as the contactor to refurbish our existing E-Stop unit once it is swapped out. I appreciate your input!

I'd be interested to know what they are actually charging. Are they an authorized Fanuc systems integrator?

As an authorized integrator, you are not allowed to mark-up Fanuc's spare parts prices, you have to sell them at their list price. The only margin that an integrator makes on selling Fanuc spares is based upon the discount that the integrator receives off of the MSRP.

Hi pdl, the problem is that we don't have an account with Fanuc directly, so we can't see their list price. I have started the process of applying for an account, but it has been very slow on their end.

It is good to know that Authorized integrators can't charge a premium. Thank you for your input.

With regards to contactors - change them both together. You may want to replace the large 4-pole relay on the PCB too.

Just to add to pdl's post - an integrators discount increases with amount they purchase from Fanuc. If you're a good customer & purchase a lot with a large distributor, they may offer a discount off of list. The more they spend with Fanuc, the better for the integrator.

You should get a Fanuc login. Pretty sure they'll quote you at list price if your login doesn't give pricing.

Skooter Thank you! We have just replaced the E-stop unit. I am also replacing both contactors and the E-stop PCB in the old unit, and using the old E-stop unit as a backup.

Fanuc Canada is taking forever to set up an account for us (it has been 3 weeks). Without an account, they wouldn't assign us a login.