TIP: User Maintenance Function – Better Than a Clipboard

Many shops use “homemade” systems to track maintenance scheduling, such as paper reminders on clipboards or calendar alerts on a laptop. These can be easily overlooked or bypassed, leaving the maintenance that your machine tool requires by the wayside. Just as missed oil changes can present dangers for your car, missing maintenance on your CNC machine can be risky.

One and Done

There IS a better way! With any Okuma CNC machine you have an onboard maintenance function called “User Maintenance” that comes standard and is ready for your use. This is located on your control in the parameter mode. All you need to do is set this up one time, and it will always keep track of required maintenance – right on your machine tool. An especially important feature is that this function tracks actual usage hours for each particular machine, which is hard to do using a clipboard-type system. You set the number of hours of run time desired between maintenance procedures (it’s a good idea to follow recommended maintenance schedules) and the control counts run time for you and sends an alert when maintenance is needed.

How to Set Up User Maintenance

Here are the simple steps to follow when setting up User Maintenance on your control:

• Go to the Parameter mode on your control
• Scroll through the dropdown menu and select “User Maintenance”
• Hit “Enter”
• Here you’ll see up to 24 fields where you can enter what you want to track for maintenance reminders
• You can set up two types of reminders:

1. Notification: Establishes your desired lead time for notification before the service is required (this gives you time to order supplies and schedule machine downtime). This will flash an alarm D message at the scheduled time, without preventing the machine from running.
2. Warning: Generates a C-level alarm letting you know you’ve exceeded your run hours between maintenance. The warning will still allow you to make parts, but at the end of each one it requires that you reset and start the CNC machine.

For more detailed information on how to maximize User Maintenance, refer to your user manual, publication LE32-155-R05, or contact your local distributor.

For those who want even more functionality, there’s a free machine tool app in the Okuma App Store called Scheduled Maintenance. You can check the compatibility requirements on the App Info page to see if this will fit with your CNC machine.