Motor Testing
Interviews
Preview the 2021 SMRP Annual Conference!
The Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP) is preparing to welcome attendees for its 29th Annual Conference. Hear from SMRP Executive Director Erin Erickson about what's in store for attendees at this year's event.
- SMRP
Five Minute Facts
Developing a Successful Motor Maintenance Program – Part 1
What makes your electric motor maintenance program a winner? Answer: A good Quality Control program from cradle to grave along with Trending Data and Troubleshooting. Watch this video to see how one part of the program, Quality Control, helps you reach your goal of a winning program in your facility.
- Noah Bethel
- PdMA Corporation
Two Minute Tips
How To Check Motor Winding Resistance On Single & Three-Phase Motors
Motor Circuit Analysis™ (MCA™) is a test method that determines the true state of health of 3 phase & single-phase electrical motors. MCA™ checks the motors coils, rotor, connections, and more. MCA™ can verify ac motor winding resistance as well as dc motor resistance and determine state of health.
- Mark Koch
- ALL-TEST Pro, LLC
Five Minute Facts
How High Resistance Imbalances Can Damage Your Electric Motors
A small, but critical, motor in a pulp and paper mill exhibits a changing and rising resistive imbalance indicating a power circuit anomaly. If the motor fails, the loss of production costs could be up to $20,000 per hour. Follow along as they test and investigate the problem.
- Noah Bethel
- PdMA Corporation
Two Minute Tips
Stator Inter-Turn Stress with Electrical Signature Analysis in Variable Frequency Drive Applications
Incorrect settings in a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) application have an impact on the windings of an electric motor. When a drive is not set correctly, or not tuned when not using straight volts/hertz settings, stresses occur between the turns in a winding. In some cases, this will appear as small Partial Discharges (PD), and in others it can be increased leakage between turns. When these conditions occur, they introduce small current discharges that effect the air gap magnetic field of the motor.
- Howard Penrose
- MotorDoc LLC
Five Minute Facts
Electrical Insulation Failure
Electrical Insulation is used to direct current through a desired path and prevent it from flowing where it is not desired. Proper electrical insulation is critical to an electric motor’s performance and longevity. Insulation breakdown is one of the most frequent causes of electric motor failure. In electric generators, for instance, 56% of failures originate from electrical insulation damage.
- Mark Koch
- ALL-TEST Pro, LLC
Five Minute Facts
Gear Box Failure on Cooling Tower Induction Motor Fan
The large motors in this power plant are attached to a gear box, which is attached to a cooling fan inside the cooling tower. All components are enclosed inside a shroud, making a visual inspection difficult and costly. A knocking noise, possibly coming from inside the shroud, was detected. But was it the motor or the gear box? Watch the video to learn how the problem was analyzed without disassembling the shroud.
- Noah Bethel
- PdMA Corporation
White Papers
Electrical Discharge Machining Identifying Root Causes and Methods to Protect Against It
The use of Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) to control AC motors has increased dramatically in recent years due to their energy savings, low operating cost, and high performance. However, the challenge with VFDs lies in the destructive electrical currents (voltages) that are induced along the rotating motor shaft and discharged to the frame through the bearings, leaving damage to the bearing surfaces known as Electrical Discharge Machining, or EDM.
- Ken Starry
- IVC Technologies
Articles
Electrical Frequencies Calculation and AC Motor Faults Patterns. Part 1
The fault diagnosis of induction motors, being probably the most common drivers used for industrial machinery plays an important role to reduce the catastrophic failures and production lost tonnage.
- Pawel Lecinski
- CMRP