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Home > News > Company News > Maintenance: what happens when drives and motors are no longer supported by their original suppliers?

Maintenance: what happens when drives and motors are no longer supported by their original suppliers?

60WKS

It's a scenario we've encountered time and time again. A factory in the US was operating machinery that had been working perfectly since it was installed back in the 90s, but the drives and motors were coming to the end of their serviceable lives and needed to be replaced. The trouble was, the original machine builder had disappeared and the manufacturer whose name was badged on the motors and drives no longer supported them.

After contacting us for help we used our extensive database of manufacturers, old and new, and our knowledge of who made what for whom, and when. A manufacturer's badge doesn't necessarily mean the unit was made by the company whose name is on the badge. Our database contains literally hundreds of manufacturers, the technical literature on the products they produced, and, where relevant, the identity of other manufacturers their products were badged for.

We knew that the motors the US company wanted to change were not made by the company whose name was on the badge. We can tell from the part code, almost straight away. Exactly the same motors were also badged for other manufacturers, and all of them were made by the same factory in Europe. The good news for our US customer – we knew who made them and we still had all the relevant technical literature that he'd never seen.

The drives, also badged for the same supplier, were actually made by Lti, who were known back then as Lust Technology Industries. Again, we had all the technical literature and were able to supply identical drop-in replacements that will most likely provide another 20 years of trouble-free service.

It's common practice and entirely ethical for one manufacturer to badge product for another. It happens all the time, and we've kept careful track records of literally hundreds of control and automation components over the decades. A very popular product that was badged for various manufacturers is the Seidel 60WKS analogue servo amplifier for controlling brushless synchronous servo motors. Over the years it has proved itself to be a very reliable work horse and we know plenty of customers who are reluctant to change. And there's no need to.

Over the years the 60WKS has made an appearance in many different guises, such as ABB Axodyn, Stoeber, and the Schindler & Wagner (SchiWa) versions. If you're not sure then contact us for advice and more information on the different codes of the 60WKS such as: 60WKS-M240/06-PB-01 and 60WKS-CE240/22PB24V etc. It may be worth checking, because if you have a 60WKS drive then it is still serviceable and there's no need to change. We can provide an exchange or refurbishment service and supply all the accessories to go with the drives, such as ballast boards, customer prints, ferrite rings and ramp generator options. Also, while stocks last, we can still supply brand new units.

So if you're running old drives and motors that are working perfectly and you don't want to upgrade it's worth contacting us as the chances are we can still provide support to keep them operational for years to come.