What to Do When You Crash, Bump or Goo

With Okuma’s documented track record of 90 months (7.5 years) Mean Time Between Failure, you’d think our team at the Mechanical Exchange Division would be out of a job by now. But actually we manage to keep pretty busy. Yes, accidents sometimes happen, but there’s another scenario we see very often: simply not taking the time to proactively care for the CNC machine. Of course, we respect the push to prioritize production. But when your machine tool is not properly cared for, sometimes it pushes back! And bam, you’re down. Our Exchange department is ready when you need us, and I’d like to share a few things that make this process as helpful as possible.

Tell Us The Whole Story

When we receive a unit for exchange, the customer’s questions quickly follow. What’s wrong with my spindle? Why did it fail? Many times we can only evaluate what we physically see with the unit itself. This can be an isolated process if we have limited information about what happened with the machine on the shop floor. The ideal is to get more input such as: What did you see? What did it sound like? What were the symptoms, before you had to do an assembly exchange or a cam box exchange?

When you tell us the whole story, we can use this information to provide a complete detailed report – including pictures and a detailed explanation as to why we feel like your failure occurred – and this becomes a proactive, preventive tool. For example, let’s say we determine that spindle coolant contamination is the culprit. It may not have fully gone to the stage of goo, but if we can point this out then the user can address this and prevent further contamination and failures. Other examples are a thru-pin that might be bad, or a bad rotary union. If an incident was the cause – such as alignment problems with the ATC, a crash, a bump, broken tooling, or poor contact –we can help you understand how to address this and prolong the life of your spindle.

Costs – The Good News and the Better News

First let’s start with the good news. Our Mechanical Division provides major components such as spindles and cam boxes that are refurbished by OEM Certified Technicians using OEM Certified spare parts. The units we provide typically sell for approximately 50% of the cost of new, and come with a 12-month workmanship warranty – as if they were new. Even better, we can provide these replacement parts immediately, before your broken part is fixed. This means no waiting while you send in your part for repairs. So not only do you get to enjoy out-of-pocket cost-efficiencies, you also get to minimize downtime costs.

Ready and Available

If we order your parts from Japan, this can involve a longer lead-time. So here in Charlotte we have $1.4 million in inventory dedicated for repairs. We actually do studies on how common a spindle is, how many we have installed, and we base on our inventory numbers on that. So if we have a very common spindle like an MB-56V or an MB-46V , we typically have 10-15 of those spindles in stock because these are high-use. For Okuma machines, we carry things like cam boxes, wheel spindles for ID and OD grinders, attachment heads, and VAC motors. Even if you have an older “vintage” Okuma, we carry units to support that product. I’ve been with Okuma for 26 years, and we still carry parts for machines that were here before my time. Our goal is to serve all Okuma users.

Here’s What I Recommend

I’d like to stress that you should use your manuals, use the recommended lubrications, and do your preventive maintenance – these things are all critical. Listen to your machines, and periodically check them so you won’t have any surprises. It takes a little time, but it will save you from unexpected downtime.

Our Exchange Division here at Okuma America includes 5 technicians with an average of about 16 years’ experience each. If you ever need a component exchange, you’ll find that we’re 100% focused on getting you up and running, and keeping you running.

Have you ever needed to exchange a mechanical component? Are you a dedicated PM’er? Comment below and share your experiences. Or contact your local distributor to find out more about Okuma’s Mechanical Exchange program.

Ron Sanders is Group Leader Mechanical Exchange, Okuma America Corporation.

[To learn more about PM measures you can take, read our blog “Handy Checklist for Preventive Maintenance.” It’s one of our most popular posts ever!]