First unveiled to UK customers at MACH 2018, FANUC’s Zero Downtime (ZDT) technology allows users to optimise, maintain and analyse the performance of their industrial robots, in real-time.
Steve Capon, technical manager at FANUC UK, says that by using ZDT, users can monitor their robots and take corrective actions before a potential problem occurs.
ZDT works by collecting data on a robot’s mechanical, process, maintenance and system health. This data is then analysed comprehensively via a central server, which issues a notice of any issues and recommends corrective actions via a notification on a tablet or smartphone, regardless of location.
In addition to faults, ZDT identifies areas in which a robot could be optimised, such as cycle time or energy consumption. Over time, the analytics can help compile a detailed and accurate predictive maintenance strategy.
Capon adds: “Data is the key to Industry 4.0, but only if it is harnessed correctly. Analytical tools like ZDT help production managers to make sense of the information that they’re given, by formulating it into a comprehensible report of performance trends, problematic areas, and recommendations.”
Depending on requirements, ZDT can also be used to monitor a variety of key performance indicators, including: reducers, torque, servo guns, grease levels and network load. FANUC says that ZDT is also scalable to any industrial robot configuration, whether that involves monitoring a single robot or collating the performance of every robot on the floor.
“At FANUC, we want to demonstrate the same level of validity and scalability in our software, as we do in our hardware,” Capon concludes. “This means that, regardless of whether you own one robot for machine tending or use multiple automated cells, you’ll still enhance your productivity and efficiency by adopting ZDT.”