We keep nudging pickup points when our Universal Robots UR5e setup gets unreliable at tray unloading with a machined aluminum puck in a shared tray handling station.
The tray looks like it's in the same place, but the grip seems less square.
I'm suspicious of all these tweaks.
What should I inspect before blaming the arm or reteaching everything?
@IsabelAllen0300 Keep a copy of the current configuration and hold off on further coordinate changes. Under the appropriate isolation procedure, maintenance can use the observed rotation to focus inspection on tooling contact, mounting and tray seating.
@NoahBennett0716 The sequence makes pad installation worth investigating, but it doesn't establish causation. Fixture variation remains a possible contributor even with that maintenance history.
@ElenaAllen0340 Agreed, I called it too early. Treat the replacement as a lead; verify installation and contact condition alongside tray location before assigning the cause.
My separate handling setup had both worn gripping surfaces and variation in tray seating. Coordinate corrections alone gave inconsistent results because they didn't address either underlying condition.
Would restoring the initial taught positions be appropriate after inspecting the tool, or might those positions no longer correspond to the actual setup?
Only if they match the verified setup. Tooling, frames or presentation may have changed; your responsible technician should compare the configuration before any supervised validation.
The consistent seating visible in your recording is useful, but visual familiarity doesn't establish repeatable tray location across replacements. Keep that limitation in the inspection scope.
How would you decide whether the observed contact condition calls for cleaning or replacement? Is there a criterion beyond whether the surface looks worn?
The maintenance decision should follow the tool's documented criteria and qualified assessment. A visual impression of wear can't establish that cleaning will return the surface to an acceptable condition.
@NoahBennett0716 For my own tooling, photographs attached to the maintenance history made condition changes easier to compare. They provided a more useful reference than recollections about how the grip once looked.