[daleman]

this morning i turned on one our vfoe only to discover within 5 mins the servo and spindle drive regen load resistors were glowing red i turned off the machine pulled the fuses not had time to look at the fault yet but welcome some ideas as to what caused this

thanks in advance for any ideas

[serviceman]

spindle drive shot servo dist board shot high incoming voltage bad regens

[Al_The_Man]

Sounds to me like the devices switching the regen resistors are shorted.
Al.

[daleman]

thanks for your input i can't see it being high input voltage as i have 9 other haas vf's running on the main supply will be looking in to it tomorrow hope it is not the spindal drive the machine was not doing anything at the time had just switched it on and powered it up went to switch the next one on then bam saw smoke had a look and the regen resistor was glowing red not good

[HaasTech83]

Sometimes the vector drive will short and just dump voltage onto the regen and thats what you get. Especially if the machine is just sitting there doing nothing. But one of things i check while im in there is the incoming voltage, dc buss etc. You can also check to see if there is voltage going to the regen when the power is applied to the servos. Check everything, all servo amps, motors and cables, and regen restitor, just to be safe.

[daleman]

problem solved the vector drive was to blame it was just dumping all the voltage straight to the regen hence the near meltdown when you switch it on called haas this afternoon and they will fit a new vector drive in the morning i was expecting a bit of a wait but that is pretty good service if you ask me

[daleman]

update vector drive turned up friday but the tech turned up on tue morning every thing went well untill the tech announced that the new vector drive was faulty as it did not work properly when he had installed it this was tue morning now fri night not seen or heard anything from haas as to when they will be back to fix the machine

[NC Cams]

Real encouraging feeling to see/know that the "new" service board the tech brings is DOA. Makes you wonder if the outfit ever heard of or did "quality control testing" prior to shipping of parts.

Check your service bill real closely. If they billed you for the service call wherein the faulty/DOA vector drive was installed, I'd be highly disinclined to pay it.....

[daleman]

the haas tech also ordered new regens found out yesterday that haas uk did not have any they have had to order them from the usa this will take our total downtime to 2 weeks plus that is if they fix it this fri

[NC Cams]

When I hear an "exclusive agent" tell me "we have to order it", I tend to go ballistic.

Typiclaly, they write up a P/O, fax or mail it with a "normal" order (to save or avoid freight) and simply wait for someone else to get over their lethargy and respond in kind to the order. Result: weeks of screwing around and lost productivity on your part and the "agent" doesn't feel any pain or loss - too bad for you and business as usual for him.

When I get the "it has to be ordered", reply, my response is "that is unacceptable". I them outline in logical, concise terms just how much their lack of part support is costing me in time and lost money - don't do this to the tech guy, he's as screwed as you. Take it up with the owner/manager of the local "agency". Tell him, nicely, to get up off his ass and FIND you a part to fix/service your machine.

Tell them what you expect and that you expect more from Haas, in reasonable terms of course - after all, they are a GLOBAL company aren't they??? They do have fax and phone service, don't they? DHL and Fedex fly planes DAILY all over the world, don't they? Haas does have expediters, don't they?. Why don't hey USE them?????

I don't see why, outside of customs B/S that you can't have a part shipped to you in a few days - providing Haas USA stocks it. God help you and Haas if they don't. If not, perhaps its time to find a new/better machine. If they don't service what you have, your service is only going to get worse, not better.

Global companies can/should offer better service that "we'll order the part and wait.....". You can bet the service agent doesn't want to wait for his money to be paid - why should you wait 2 weeks or more to have something that they are the exclusive agent for to be repaired or "ordered". Seems like lame to me.....

Sounds like it is time for some righteous indignation....

[daleman]

follow this link and read what haas uk say about commitment to service


http://www.haas.co.uk/support.html

[Geof]

follow this link and read what haas uk say about commitment to service....

I did and obviously your fall into the 6% that they do not carry as regular spare part stock.

Have you ever moticed how the people/companies who prattle on about their 'commitment' or whatever, are often the ones who fall down when it comes to actually performing?

And as NC mentions FEDEX and UPS airplanes are flying all the time; I can get replacement parts into the hands of my UK rep within four days so why does it take Haas two weeks.

[NC Cams]

Haas UK may support 94% of their service parts business, BUT, 100% of the folks who fall into the 6% category have a POS machine that is 1000% DOWN AND INOPERATIVE.

I'd have more respect for them if they had spent the time and money they did on HTML, and other website "puffery", and spent the money instead on stocking the 6% of parts that they don't service "off the shelf".

You can't convince me that you are the ONLY person in the world who had one of the vector drives go down with this problem. In light of their "stellar" performance ("brand new" part DOA), you got to think/imagine that it is NOT the first, nor last, time they had the problem.

If it were my machine, I'd be screaming high heaven until they flew parts in. Or, maybe, in light of it being the UK, maybe everyone at Haas UK is on "afternoon tea".

Tea this....

Reply to Geof: "why does it take Haas two weeks?" Lethargic, dimwitted, they could care less attitude toward SERVICE.

If you tolerate that for service, you'll probably never get anything better in the way of service - time to start biiitching if you ask me. Squeeking wheels get oil - and service parts.....

EDIT: The last line of the Haas service "moto" from the UK Haas link says VOLUMES:

QUOTE: "So, when you buy a Haas not only do you get the greatest value machine tool available, but also you can rely on the best service and support in the industry - at no extra cost!"

Hmmm, seems to me like they should be flying in the parts - at no extra cost ASAP, not in 2 weeks - so as to offer their psuedo promised "best service". Seems like it is time for Haas UK to demonstrate via their performance what they clearly promise to do on their website.

If they don't do it "at no extra cost", they could be accused of an outright lie.

[daleman]

we don't usually have a problem with the service apart from this time we have 9 haas vmc's and usually the parts we need are in stock but this time they have seemed to have dropped the ball.
i mean how many haas machines are there in the uk and they don't stock any spare regens this is a common part on all haas machines .
it started on a thursday we knew what was wrong with it so we rang haas to get a vector drive sent out fine they say vector drive arrives mon morning hass tech arrives wed spends the best part of the day installing the new vector drive and trying to get it to work with no luck.
eventually he gives in and says that the new vector drive could also be faulty and that we should also order some regens jus in case they are bad so ok the tech orders them and leaves.
did not hear from haas on the thur or friday.
so we rang them on mon and was told that the regens would have to be ordered from america we asked how long that would take and were told 1 week so if by tomorrow morning the parts still have not arrived then it would have been 2 weeks from the 1st phone call and still no fix .
i suppose we are lucky to have 8 other haas vmc's to fall back on just work them a little harder .
heres to hopeing that new parts arrive tomorrow.

[Geof]

.....so we rang them on mon and was told that the regens would have to be ordered from america....

You mean the regen resistors? In the vented housing on top of the control box? That look for all the world like the heating elements on top of your electric stove? And nobody had the gumption to see if this kind of thing could be purchased from a local stove repair outfit? All you need is a certain watt capacity at a certain resistance.

[NC Cams]

Dale: if that is an example of Haas' so called, self proclaimed "best service and support in the industry", I'd really hate to see what "average service" consists of....

Between DOA parts and the apparent "throw it over the wall/somebody will catch it" response of the service tech and even more lethargic/dimwitted support by his parts guy(s), it would seem that you are getting anything BUT "the best service and support in the industry" as promised by the "web master".

To wait over 2 weeks for regen resistors - or any service part from a "global" company for that matter - is simply ridiculous - especally for a company that has reportedly bought as many machines as you did.

The sales guy and owner of your local Haas agency would DEFINITELY be getting an ear full of arse chewing for such lame support if it were my machine they were "servicing". Unbelieveable.

Besides all this, the apparent capability of the "service guy" is nothing more than that of a "parts changer". Again, check your bill REAL closely - you're really going to make sure that you only pay for the "service" rendered, not the OJT (on the job training) that the service guy has every indication that he was going thru. Was the guy even concious when he was there???

[daleman]

geof firstly we did look around to see if we could find anything that would do the job there was a lot to choose from but nothing that was an exact match we just figured that getting one from haas would be quicker
i checked to see if we would have to pay for our first service call and we don't because the replacement parts were faulty so we will only have to pay for when they actuall turn up and fix it

[HAILINHAAS]

NC -

Do you own any Haas machines?

Are you experiencing the same issues as Daleman?

[NC Cams]

No (re: ownership of a Haas) but my next door neighbor (literally) has 5 - 3 VMC's and 2 lathes. They pretty much run day in and out - he had a spindle crash on 1 machine due to his error and a motherboard memory failure (after 6 years of essentially flawless operation).

The fact that they (Haas UK) is not charging for the one futile service call, HARDLY makes up for the lame parts support - 2 weeks of lost productivity due to NOT having a resistor (couldn't they have robbed one from the DOA drive???), a faulty DOA service part and then over 2 weeks to get a dissipative resistor sent in by what sounds like pony express doesn't say much, if any at all, about "the best service and support in the industry".

Like I said before, "that's simply UNACCEPTABLE". THen again, I tend to expect more from a vendor who I'd have bought THAT much equipment from - regardless of their alleged 94% successful service support "record".

[GITRDUN]

One of the old Haas service techs told me just a couple months ago that the regen resistors on the top of the Haas machines are now purchased from an oven manufacturer. He said its just a basic oven element.
If you can find one and rig it to the machine, that might be a temporary fix untill the new part comes in. Assuming it wouldnt damage anything else. Im not knowledgable enough to try it, but if i was desperate id sure think about it.