Motion control solutions meet budgetary constraints

They are more often than not faced with the challenge of keeping ageing conveyor systems operational and have key decisions to make about maintenance and partial system upgrades.

Conveyor system maintenance is key to ensuring that the life of expensive industrial systems is extended well beyond a manufacturer’s guarantee, safely and cost effectively.

RS is suggesting a series of tips for maintaining these systems while keeping downtime to a minimum, including: employing maintenance engineers to repair small problems before they become large enough to affect the quality of the manufactured goods or cause expensive downtime; keeping stock of obsolete critical parts or those with long lead times; and establishing a preventative maintenance procedure with regular system audits and documentation to reduce unexpected failures.

According to Heiko Luckhaupt, Marketing Manager at RS: “In an ideal world, the latest state-of-the-art technology would always be available to producers to enable them to manufacture, process or package products and materials to the highest specifications. However, it is often the case that the technology being used currently is actually more than adequate to do the job, plus there is often no additional budget available for significant upgrades. In many circumstances, the best course of action is to keep current systems up and running for as long as possible.”

RS offers a number of options from leading suppliers – including the RS Pro range – to provide solutions for maintaining mechanical parts such as bearings, belts, pulleys, couplings, gears, gaskets, seals, dampers, height mounts and ball transfer units, as well as pneumatic components such as adaptors, fittings and couplings.

Also available are many options for maintaining electrical parts such as motors, drives, sensors, sounders, beacons, switches, cables, connectors and pushbuttons. In addition, a range of supporting materials includes tools, safety signs, first-aid equipment, personal protection equipment, lubricants and sprays.

As well as parts available in the RS Pro range, there are also motors, drives and starters from leading companies such as ABB, Eaton, Schneider Electric and Siemens. For example, the Siemens 1FK7 synchronous servomotors can be used for a wide variety of applications including machine tool drives, robots and handling systems, packaging systems and material processing machines.

Replacement parts available are linear and radial bearings from companies such as SKF and IGUS, as well as DC and stepper motors, controllers and peripherals from Faulhaber. Key pneumatic components and hydraulic components are available from SMC and Parker; and conveyor belts and rollers are available from Contitech, Bosch Rexroth and Interroll.