XXT probes dropping from rack

[[Mi...]]

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This points to more like what I was suggesting. Your racks are fine, it's the XXT head that's the problem. If it's bent from a collision or the internals are twisted like I showed (Hopefully nowhere near that bad) you will have probe change issues at the rack.

You're on the right track about the Z issue, assuming this is a bridge type CMM ( not sure if you said the model anywhere in this thread), you might have to pop off the Z cover to clean the entire Z quill with alcohol, I just recently had to do that with one of our old Eclipse CMMs w/XXT.

[[Ni...]]

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Woudn't the drives shutting off during movement mean that it is trying to push hard and its not moving thus shutting off the drives?
All of the acuras and conturas i ran would only shut off the drives during movements when they would hit or touch something and keep pushing but not be able to move.

So that means that its still not entering the rack properly. It is probably entering slightly off which adds a lot of tension when entering the rack which then kills the drive.

[[Mi...]]

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If there is lag in the movement it will also kill the drives, and if you have a newer Joystick box with the display it will even tell you that. A dirty Z quill can cause the drive to slip when it's trying to pull the probe out of the head, it takes a surprising amount of force to pull an XXT adapter plate straight out like what happens when it puts a system away.

It's different than a collision and the error that shows up is different.

[[Do...]]

Update.
Encountered the error again after having several successful changes. Found smudges on the Z scale itself, carefully cleaned and removed cover to clean entire Z quill. Cleaned the X scale and beam as well. Had a few more changes and then issue re-occurred.

Found residual water/oil within the line coming into the machine after passing through the traps. Flushed what we could from the line with alcohol and allowed to dry. Air dryer connected to machine also needed to be serviced. We are looking at adding more filtration to the line coming into the dryer as well. PM has been a pain point since the machines were installed. Working on instructions and equipment improvements to mitigate the risk of failures going forward.

Ran through changes up and down the rack without issue and running calibration again this evening. We believe that contamination in the air was causing lag in the bearings/sensor just as Michael described, on top of the other issues we came across.

Hoping this is the final piece of the puzzle. Will keep everyone posted on the progress.

Cheers

[[Do...]]

Update.
The issue is currently intermittent, and a root cause has still yet to be determined. Some days the machine will refuse to cooperate at all and others it will run flawlessly for a few hours before inevitably shutting off the drives again.
We are supposed to have Zeiss on site soon to calibrate another machine so I'm hoping they can troubleshoot this issue while they are here.

Here's to hoping!
Cheers

[[Je...]]

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Please contact CIC for a HW support ticket. If your drives are kicking off you have an issue that must be diagnosed by a qualified service tech. The tech coming on site will have an assigned task and an allotted time to accomplish. He/she may not permitted to diagnose additional issues outside their defined scope work and may not have the skillset required to diagnose controller related issues. What they will likely advise is for you to create a ticket to have the issue serviced at another time. Doing so ahead of time may allow for scheduling to diagnose and/or service.

I would discourage you from relying on service techs to accommodate a "since you are here" request that is not stated on their work-order.

[[Do...]]

Update.
The machine has been running well for the past two weeks since my latest fix. I believe the root cause of the problem was dirty air getting into the machine. The water/oil traps had small pools of oil in the bottom of them, which I had originally attributed to the filters working properly. Without fresh filters on hand, I cleaned both the filters and bowls using Dawn soap and hot water. Allowed them to dry completely over the next 24 hours or so then re-installed them and let the machine sit idle for a few hours. Ran some test probe changes and the machine seemed to be working fine. Later that evening, I was told the machine once again had a lock up.

I let the machine sit idle overnight and in the morning, I noticed both the Z and X beams had deposits of oil from where the machine was left stationary. There was evidently still some residual oil left in the lines, so I wiped the beams down with IPA and a lint free rag and it has been working fine ever since. I'd asked the operators to monitor the machine for oil deposits and over the next few days the spots eventually cleared up. On top of that, it appears that the machine is nearly silent during operation as well.

I'm currently working on updated operator and maintenance PMs as well as ordering replacement parts to prevent reoccurrences in the future.

I hope this post helps others who are encountering the same issues or, at the very least, serve as a reminder to keep an eye on the health of your machines.

Cheers,
Don

[[Ja...]]

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Would you be willing to post your PM process up when you get it complete. I was working on one a few months ago, but with the nature of the business, got pushed to the back burner.

[[Do...]]

I've been exploring the forums for earlier posts and have found some valuable insights on PMs. If anyone has more tips or tricks, I'd greatly appreciate hearing them. Additionally, I'm curious about how other places ensure regular execution of these tasks. Checklists tend to be overlooked over time or treated as a routine checkbox, often without completing the actual task.

TPM Event:
viewtopic.php?p=41483&hilit=maintenance#p41483

Prolonging CMM Calibration:
viewtopic.php?t=4119

Cheers,
Don

[[Do...]]

Hi all,
As of last week, I am back to square one with our drives kicking off while racking probes on our Contura 10/12/6. The current error code is now:

4 travel command rejected, motor output stage not ready
CMM drives off
6 command rejected, cancel (D99...) recognized

I've cleaned what I can, replaced filters, rebooted PC and machine as usual, but the issue persists. At this point, I would like to conduct some testing with the air pressure settings. I believe we are seeing drops in pressure due to the summer weather and humidity.

The only manual available in the Portal is for Contura 6206 (not sure if the same settings apply). According to that manual, the pressure should be between 6 and 8 bars. I was under the impression that 5 bars was the maximum you should set the machine to. Would someone be able to confirm?

Cheers,
Don

[[Mi...]]

I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, but I do know from a conversation with a tech that you should not attempt to adjust the air pressure as it affects all your bearings.

[[Th...]]

That's referring to the pressure fed to the machine at the attachment point, not the regulator at the other end, which is supposed to be 5 bar. These values are in the spec sheet for my 2014 model as well.