ABB DSQC563 3HAC16035-1 Brake Release Board for IRC5 / S4C+ Robot Controller

Technical Specifications

Main Features and Advantages

Per-axis independent manual release.​ The ABB 3HAC16035-1​ (DSQC563) gives the technician six clearly labeled pushbuttons, one per robot axis, plus a master release. Pressing a button latches 24 V DC onto that axis’s brake coil; releasing the button drops the coil and the spring re-locks. This granular control prevents the classic “all-six-axes flop at once” hazard—you can free the elbow (axis 2) for re-homing without accidentally dropping the wrist or the base.Emergency external 24 V supply port.​ When the main controller is dead—UPS failed, main breaker tripped, drive fault that won’t clear—the ABB DSQC563​ still accepts a flying-lead 24 V battery or bench supply on its emergency terminals. That lets a maintenance crew manually unbind a crashed robot, rotate it off the collision, and re-home, even with the cabinet completely de-energised on the AC side.Hard-wired servo-enable interlock.​ Every brake-release action on the 3HAC16035-1​ is AND-gated with a servo-enable cut to the corresponding axis computer. The robot cannot be driven from the teach pendant or the main controller while a manual brake is held open—this is the single feature that keeps a tech’s hand safe when they’re underneath a 150 kg payload arm. The interlock is hardware, not firmware, so it holds even if the axis computer is confused.Opto-isolated relay outputs.​ Each brake channel on the ABB 3HAC16035-1​ uses a relay stage decoupled from the logic side by optocouplers. A shorted brake coil or a 24 V transient on the field side will not back-feed into the controller’s internal bus—the worst case is a blown relay contact, not a dead axis computer.Diagnostic feedback.​ The board continuously monitors per-channel current and reports brake-state, over-current, and coil-short back to the controller. On the DSQC563, a button LED that starts flashing instead of steady-on tells the tech “your 24 V rail is sagging” or “axis 4 brake coil impedance looks wrong” before they even pick up a multimeter.Spare-pool familiarity.​ Because the ABB 3HAC16035-1​ is mechanically and electrically backward-compatible across IRC5 M2000 → M2004 → later S4C+ retrofits, most ABB robot shops already stock it. It interchanges with 3HAC046642-001 (BRK001) directly, and in some cabinet revisions with 3HAC059158-001—meaning a line-down emergency rarely waits on lead time.

Application Field

The ABB 3HAC16035-1​ (DSQC563) lives exclusively in ABB robot controller cabinets, but the scenarios that call it into action are varied. In automotive body shops, IRB 6600 / 6640 spot-welding cells run 20+ hour shifts; when a gun tip jams and the robot drives into the fixture, the servo faults and locks all brakes. Maintenance cannot re-home with the drive active (risk of secondary crash), so they cut AC, land a 24 V service battery on the ABB DSQC563​ terminals, and manually release axis 2 + axis 3 to back the wrist off the weld gun, one axis at a time. Without the brake-release board this would require unbolting the motor or fighting the spring brake with a hex key—both slow and risky.In metal fabrication and machining cells, IRB 2600 / 4600 material-handling robots frequently collide with pallet corners or gripper fingers during program touch-up. The 3HAC16035-1​ is the interface the cell operator uses to “jog the arm free” while the main controller remains faulted. In paint shops (IRB 5400 / 5500 family, where DSQC563 also sees duty on compatible cabinets) the board’s IP20 envelope and opto-isolated outputs matter because solvent-laden air and VFD switching noise are constant companions.Service companies doing IRC5 cabinet refurbishment treat the ABB DSQC563​ as a wear item—button caps yellow, relay contacts pit after a few thousand cycles, and the LED lenses haze under cabinet UV. Swapping the 3HAC16035-1​ is a 10-minute job: four screws, the 24 V terminal block, and the ribbon to the axis computer. For plants running mixed IRB 2400 / 4400 legacy alongside newer IRB 6660, keeping a half-dozen ABB 3HAC16035-1​ on the local spare rack covers the entire fleet. In short, the board does nothing during normal production runs—and everything the day a robot buries itself in a die.