The following component types (in bold) and failures (displayed underneathe) are the most common failures with robotic equipment.

Teach Pendant

• Physical Damage
• Bad Display
• Bad Keyboard
• Bad Motherboard
• Bad / Damanged Power Supply
• E-Stop Failure

Servo Drive

• Shorted Power Cubes
• Shorted Input Bridge
• Bad Capacitors
• Bad Firing Cards
• Defective Motor (can be caused from excessive heat)
• Power Supply Failure (can be caused from excessive heat)
• Communication Failures (can be caused by electrical component failure)

Power Supplies

• Shorted Input Bridge
• Bad Capacitors
• Shorted Output Transistors

Controller

• Bad Display
• Bad Keypad

Wrists

• Contamination, coolant, metal shavings, and paint.
• Lubrication, lack of or incorrect grease (wrists usually have specific requirements for lubrication/grease).
• Overloading (trying to ruin higher payloads outside of the design envelope of the robot).
• Physical crash (running the wrist into something can often cause damage and component failure).

Servo Motor

• Contamination, coolant and grease are the most common.
• Low brake torque / brake worn out.
• Overloading of the motor. Excessive payloads outside of the robots design envelope. This can also cause for the brakes to wear prematurely.
• Overheating. Bad fans or fans not being used, and or not functioning.
• Coupling alignment. Side loading the shaft which in turn side loads the bearings causing premature failure of the bearing and the bearing bores.
• Feedback is damaged or misaligned.
• Seal Wear
• Bearing Failure (from long service)
• Shaft / Keyway Wear (from loose couplings)

Encoders

• Bearing wear
• Contamination
• Physical Damage (broken disc / slide)
• Electrical Component Failure