Industrial robot key components how to choose grease?

February 07, 2024

Industrial robot key components how to choose grease?

In recent years, industrial robot technology has been rapidly developed, in industrial production and People's Daily life has been widely used, good lubrication is one of the key factors for the normal operation of industrial robots.

Industrial robots are usually composed of three parts: the actuator, the drive-transmission system and the control system, of which the drive-transmission system needs grease lubrication, mainly including the drive motor bearing, the reducer, the guide rail and the lead screw and some ancillary equipment. Compared with vehicles, machine tools and other conventional mechanical equipment. Usually, the service period of a robot is 10 to 20 years, which is closely related to the lubrication maintenance of the robot. Choosing the right lubrication grease and doing the relevant daily maintenance can ensure and extend the service life of industrial robots.

Drive motor bearing grease selection

The drive motor is the power source of the robot. At present, most industrial robots use electric servo drive system, mainly including AC servo motor, DC servo motor and stepper motor. Among them, AC servo motor and DC servo motor are generally used in high precision and high speed robot drive system; Stepper motor is mostly suitable for small simple machines with low precision and speed requirements.

The lubricating grease selected for the bearings of industrial robot servo motors is generally lithium base or polyurea grease of full Synthetic Base Oil type. The base oils selected for greases are mostly PAO (polyalphaolefin) and polyol ester oils. These two base oils have excellent lubrication performance and low temperature flow performance, which can effectively lubrize and protect bearings in harsh working environments, and have excellent high temperature oxidation stability performance, which can meet the lifetime lubrication requirements of servo motor bearings.

Reducer grease selection

The reducer is the power transmission mechanism of the industrial robot, which is located between the servo motor and the robot's executive mechanism, and uses its own speed converter to slow down the rotation number of the servo motor to the desired rotation number and get a larger torque. The reducer is one of the core parts of the robot, taking the six-axis industrial robot as an example, the reducer accounts for as much as 30% of the cost, and the representative products include the RV reducer produced by the Japanese Emperor (Nabtesco) company and the Harmonic reducer produced by the Japanese harmonic company

Industrial robot reducer is generally lubricated with grease, and some individual manufacturers also use lubricating oil for lubrication. Because the use temperature is generally not high, most of the industrial robot reducer grease selected lithium based thickener. In order to ensure a long oil change cycle, the Base Oil is generally selected as a synthetic base oil or a semi-synthetic base oil.

Guide rail and ball screw grease selection

For cartesian industrial robots, or industrial robots need a long travel in a certain direction, the guide rail and ball screw are generally used to achieve the movement of the robot.

Robot guide rails and ball screws can be lubricated with lubricating oil or grease, but in order to make the structure simple, grease is generally used. According to different working conditions, the formula of robot guide rail and ball screw grease is very different. The thickening agent used in the robot guide rail and ball screw grease is generally lithium or polyurea, and the base oil can be mineral oil or synthetic oil. In some special environments, such as places that often produce vibration, clean rooms, vacuum, low temperature or high temperature and other special conditions, grease that meets the lubrication requirements under these special environmental conditions should be used.

In the grease products used by industrial robots, the proportion of fully formed and semi-formed grease products has gradually increased. As industrial robot production and use enterprises pay more attention to lubrication work, fully formed and semi-formed grease products with better performance, longer service life and maintenance cycle are more and more popular.

Author:

Mr. James

E-mail:

sales@cn-lubricantadditive.com

Phone/WhatsApp:

+86 13783582233