Dress pack replacement and retrofit

Replacing a dress pack is usually treated as a like-for-like swap. It is often the wrong moment to do that. If the pack failed, something about the routing, the specification or the environment caused it — and fitting the same thing again buys you the same failure on roughly the same schedule.

Two different jobs

Replacement

The pack has reached the end of its life and the cell has not changed. Fit the same specification, but take the opportunity to record why it failed and where.

Retrofit

Something has changed — a new tool, a re-taught path, a moved fixture, a different process on the same arm — or the original pack never suited the duty. Here the specification should change with it.

Most of what gets called replacement is really retrofit. A cell that has been running for five years is rarely the cell that was commissioned.

What we look at first

• Where the failure happened, and whether it is the same point each time
• Whether the free lengths and clamp positions still match the original design
• What has been added to the arm since — tooling, sensors, extra media
• Heat and spatter exposure now, rather than at commissioning
• Whether the protection was being replaced on schedule, or run to failure

A photograph of the failed section answers most of these faster than a description. Why robot cables fail covers what the patterns mean.

Retrofitting to a different architecture

If the cell is a candidate, this is the moment to consider moving to a closed package. The LHMS needs no robot-specific adjustment at fitting and carries a documented mean time to repair of seven minutes or less for material handling and fifteen minutes or less for carried spot welding — which changes what a future failure costs you.

It is not always the right call. A cell with two years left in it, or one that rarely stops, may not justify the change. We will say which we think you are looking at.

Any robot brand, any original supplier

Becker is robot-brand independent and retrofits packs regardless of who built the original. We will need the robot model and mounting, and ideally the core schedule if you have it — if you do not, we can work it out from the pack.

Keeping the next one longer

A retrofit is worth little if the maintenance regime stays the same. The maintenance checklist sets out what to inspect and what to replace on schedule, and DCDI attaches the documentation and spares list to the specific robot so the next technician is not starting from nothing.

Request a quote, send photographs of a failed pack, or browse spare parts.