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Tech informed me that Mitsubishi no longer supports "A" and "B" drives/components.

ManualEd

Stainless
Joined
Oct 13, 2014
Location
Kelowna, Canada
Tech informed me that Mitsubishi no longer supports "A" and "B" drives/components.

I was arranging to pull the spindle on a 96 SQT15MS T-Plus today.

The tech told me that Mitsubishi decided to end support for A and B drive/components, as repaired components aren't lasting past the warranty period.

Before I go ahead with the spindle, what are the options for electronics repairs on this vintage machine?

Are there any independent electronic shops that can repair all the servos/boards etc without parts support from Mitsubishi?

It'd be a shame to drop $10k on a spindle rebuild, only to have a board go and have a 15k lb paper weight.
I would have to add an extra leg or two to my desk...
 
Check around the Chicago Illinois area I heard there's some pretty good electronic shops there from the fella I bought my machine from. I'm sorry I don't have any names for you hopefully a Google search will render you some luck! If you find one can you please post it for us?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
 
There will always be independent electronics repair vendors. All of those drives are made from cookie cutter, off the shelf, semi-conductor components. Mitsubishi designed the boards and the layout, and they wrote the software that makes it run, but they bought everything else.

I'm working on a Fanuc Alpha power supply now. All of the IGBT modules are made by SanRex and Toshiba. This is a big power supply, 50 amps at 480V. But, no component inside costs more than $150 brand new.
 
Absolutely agree with Ewlsey. I have had exceptionally good results using very smart people in the business. Unfortunately, it seems as if I have had to use them more than I would like to have. Still, both have been very good to us. Lately, I have been using member BugRobotics for our electronic repairs. I really cannot say enough about him or his service. Right now, he has two Haas servo drives of ours. He has also repaired multi layer board defects and component replacement for us on boards that are not available to replace. Prices have always been MORE than fair and turn around time better than any other I have dealt with.

And, as Ewlsey points out, despite the board or item's purpose, the parts are never that expensive. ( so far have always been opto couplers, transistors, and IGBTs )

Bottom line - there are people out there. You may just have to dig a little.
 
Even in the worst possible case scenario, I'm positive that Mitsubishi or another major manufacturer could sell you a brand new equivalent spindle drive that will correctly run your spindle motor.

The motor doesn't know what drive is making it run. The control doesn't know what drive it is telling to run the spindle. All the accel/decel, tapping, Wye/Delta switching, etc could all be duplicated in a brand new drive.
 
Yes, MEAU has obsoleted the "A" and "B" versions of the MDS- drives/power supplies, but newer versions ("C" and "D") interchange 100% perfectly.

Beware when sourcing the drives, as there are 2 voltage classes: 200V, and 400V (I believe). All the Mazak's I've seen use the 200V drives/power supplies.

Also, don't forget about our friend Ebay. There are always spare drives and such on there, some are brand new - sold by people in Hong Kong/Japan.

And, good independent electronic repair shops should have experience with the older revisions of the MDS- series drives/power supplies.

So, yes, your spindle is worth rebuilding!

On edit: a couple of years ago for my '97 VTC-16B vertical mill with M-Plus control, I had to purchase from MEAU a new MDS-150-CV-C power supply, as my -A was not re-buildable (and thus no, you don't get a core credit!) for $3500.

ToolCat Greg
 
We dumped our Mazak VQC 20/40B just because electronics were not available anymore. Had a component on a board burn out it was 3 weeks to get our board repaired no more exchanges. Owner sold it, we now have 4 510`s. Wonderful machines these are.
 








 
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