Picture this – You’re in the middle of a HOT production job, everything appears to be going extremely smooth without any major mishaps throughout each cycle. Suddenly, your drive unit goes out and it puts production on this job to a complete halt.

Scrambling to get the unit uninstalled and sent out for a rush repair seems like the most logical first option to get things back up and running again – this can be a huge mistake at times! Upon getting the drive unit back, you notice there are a plethora of wires that need to be connected back and the labeling/cables aren’t in the best condition so it’s very difficult to read what each wire is for. This can lead to extra downtime and often a headache with trying to trace wires or hope that there is some photo somewhere showing what needs to connect where.

Before jumping the gun and getting the drive removed, it’s always a good idea to take a few minutes to check and verify any wiring and all connections are clearly labeled and easy to understand where each wire needs to be installed back once the drive has arrived back from Precision Zone repair. Some drive units don’t have much to worry about and will have around 4 sets of main connections – the input signal connector, a feedback connector (in some cases), the incoming power lines, and the output lines for the motor. Other units, mainly inverters and drives of that nature, have a terminal block opposed to a single connector plug that opens a wide range of customizability for specific applications but also means there can be 20+ different, usually quite small wires that will need to be connected back correctly.

If things are not properly recorded or documented, it is still possible to figure out which wire needs to go where but will generally involve checking parameters to determine what each terminal is set up for and then comparing to the wiring diagram of the machine to make sure the correct signal is connected to that terminal. These terminal blocks are labeled on the drive unit to make identification quick and easy. If each incoming wire to the unit also has a clean, clearly printed label on it, this allows reconnection to take little to no time at all and greatly decreases the overall downtime while trying to get that hot job back up and running.