german woes; gildemeister CTX420

[nismopu]

We have a Gildemeister CTX420 and like everyone else who has one of these; we get hardly any good support from DMG. Most other machine companies would at least give ya a follow up call to make sure a problem is resolved. Its been 3 weeks and still no call from them or email. Our Y-axis fault errors are still occuring and their suggestions have not fixed anything.
Is there anyone out there who has personally worked and fixed these machines before?
Last year at this time I was up north(seattle,wa) of me at a Siemens 840D control seminar learning about the inner components of the control and how to unleash its full potential. While there I met some folks who worked at Boeing and apparrently had the same machine as we do. Any of you guys on this forum or maybe know of someone in the NW that can diagnose this machines problem?
Our problem is centered around a series of errors involving the Y-axis. When this error occurs the machine stops completely and will not continue until its power cycled. We get about 6 errors sayind the drive enable signals are non existant basically. Then drive errors themselves pop up and even encoder plus thermistor errors. Its unlikely that the encoder and thermistor inside the drive motor have failed, correct? We thought maybe something as simple as the cable that leads from the drive to the motor could be comprimised, so we replaced it but the errors still occur.
I want to believe the drive is bad. However, when it does alarm out and freezes the machine. I can get the alarm reset and the drives to re-enable without powercycling. Only thing I can do though is manually using the control itself move the Y-axis in the negative direction. Whenever I attempt to move it in the positive direction past the position it alarms at it will re-alarm. It also doesn't always alarm in the same position but when it does alarm it remembers that position and won't allow us to move past it positively. Does this sound like something somebody on here has dealt with before?

[Metalmanti]

We have a CTX 500 and a CTX 400 and we have had similar problems. I believe what we did to narrow in on the problem was to swap the drives in the back of the machine to see if the faults followed the drive. Just a thought, I will ask more today and see if I can spur some memory. Once we got dedicated transformers for each machine we quit having the problems. We have our own electronics techs so trouble shooting was alot less painless than waiting on DMG.

[nismopu]

Hey, thanks for the reply! Its good to know there's other people out in the USA with these machines and with similar issues! I just left the company where I operated this machine and am now working with much larger equipment but all manual, lol! Anyway, we figured out the problem a week before I left and it turned out to be mechanical believe it or not. The Y-axis has two main support bearings for the lead screw and a slip coupler that connects the belt drive to the lead screw. Well, at some point or another the machine was ran to its max travel in Y without a soft limit set(all speculation) causing the slip coupler and the belt drive to come in contact with the upper bearings seal. It took out the seal and slowly but surely the bearing with it. I have pictures on my phone but haven't bothered to upload them. The bearing cost about 900 bucks new shipped from germany "INA corp" and a new slip collar was 40 bucks but we had to order a min. of 3(ugh 120bucks). So, a lil over a thousand bucks later it was as good as new! We discovered the issue when watching the belt drive and noticed a gap would increase and decrease below it as we jogged the Y-axis with the sheetmetal covers off. When the belt drive cam in contact with the upper bearing it would make two revs and then alarm out because it was overloading the motor(go figure). I am keeping in contact with them and if they have anymore troubles they will most likely call me. lol! I cant escape that dang german machine!!!

So, should I let my old company know your techs are for hire? Any of them ever want to travel to washington state? lol!

[syamin]

Greetings from Mexico, We own a ctx 420 V6, double spindle, y axe too. Have not had this problem yet, but I just had mine 3 months down waiting for DMG to accept an assembly problem, Anyway I´m passing this so It will not happen to you.
Check lubrication in your gides is correct, if one is not lubricating, it could be that when assembling the machine they tied too much the coupling and deform the entrance of lubricating channels inside the linear bearing, preventing lubricant to go in. You may check by removing the hose from the manifold and using a sringe to pump lubricant to the bearing, if not possible, must shure your machine will eventually show signs of premature wear.

Santiago Yamin
Mexican Aerospace Components.

[Metalmanti]

Originally Posted by nismopu So, should I let my old company know your techs are for hire? Any of them ever want to travel to washington state? lol!

nismopu,
Thats funny, we are in Washington state. What company did you work for? You can pm me if yo do not want to broadcast the name.

[nismopu]

Originally Posted by Metalmanti nismopu, Thats funny, we are in Washington state. What company did you work for? You can pm me if yo do not want to broadcast the name.

Its a company called USdigital, they're located in Vancouver, WA. They called me just yesterday and informed me of a new problem that sounds like I may have to go in and look at next week. Well see what they figure out this week and hopefully I wont have too. Anyway, is it possible they could contact you and maybe exchange similar issues/solutions? Support is EXTREMELY limited on these machines, IMO. It looks as though DMG/SEIKI merge will begin to help things out in that area; especially in the USA but currently that merger is staying in the Asia area.

Heres USD's site http://www.usdigital.com/

[nismopu]

Originally Posted by syamin Greetings from Mexico, We own a ctx 420 V6, double spindle, y axe too. Have not had this problem yet, but I just had mine 3 months down waiting for DMG to accept an assembly problem, Anyway I´m passing this so It will not happen to you. Check lubrication in your gides is correct, if one is not lubricating, it could be that when assembling the machine they tied too much the coupling and deform the entrance of lubricating channels inside the linear bearing, preventing lubricant to go in. You may check by removing the hose from the manifold and using a sringe to pump lubricant to the bearing, if not possible, must shure your machine will eventually show signs of premature wear. Santiago Yamin Mexican Aerospace Components.

Thanks for the heads up Santiago! I will definitely have them look into it and see if we can find another assembly mistake. Believe me your not the first person to run into such a problem! peace.