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Articles in Industry Publications

The Big Four Factors Affecting Motor Health

Tips for improving the efficiency and reliability of your motor-driven systems

  • May 2022
  • Number of views: 3479
Trade press article

Balancing plant maintenance costs and activities with the need to achieve production goals is a daily challenge for most maintenance professionals. Since the motor-driven system is often a critical component in this dynamic, this article looks at some best practices to help it achieve those goals and meet customer demands.

New ANSI/ASA Shaft Alignment Standard Adopted

  • May 2022
  • Number of views: 5919
Trade press article — Pumps & Systems

The procedure for aligning two rotating machines requires measuring their relative shaft positions and adjusting one or both machines. Until recently, though, how closely the shafts need to be aligned was an open question. That changed with the publication of American National Standards Institute/Acoustical Society of America (ANSI/ASA) standard 2.75-17.

The Shape of What’s Shaking

Identify and visualize natural frequencies that cause resonance

  • May 2022
  • Number of views: 3266
Trade press article — Plant Engineering

This webcast will focus on identifying resonance and then move to methods that help visualize the vibratory motion, helping to identify solutions.

Evaluate Noise in Electric Motors

Determining the source can be more difficult than correcting it

  • April 2022
  • Number of views: 2670
Trade press article — Plant Engineering

Determining the source of noise in a motor is often much more challenging than correcting it. However, a methodical approach to investigating noise can narrow down the possible causes and therefore make resolution easier.

A Simple Approach to Duty Ratings of AC Machines

How to ensure the correct duty rating for each application

  • April 2022
  • Number of views: 3258
Trade press article — Electrical Construction & Maintenance

Before putting an AC machine into service, make sure its duty rating matches the application requirements. Otherwise, there’s a good chance excessive heat will degrade the machine’s windings.

Reject These Motor Myths

  • April 2022
  • Number of views: 2489
Trade press article — Efficient Plant

The tongue-in-cheek saying “If it’s in black and white, it must be right” is a helpful reminder that not everything we read (or hear) is accurate or complete. It’s always best to check sources and verify facts before accepting consequential statements as true. This article provides a selection of common misconceptions about three-phase squirrel-cage motors and the facts that deny them.

Sizing Pumps and Pump Motors

Important considerations for your application

  • January 2022
  • Number of views: 3042
Trade press article — Modern Pumping Today

End users or service centers often need to specify replacement pumps or pump motors, sometimes involving a retrofit or re-application project. A successful outcome depends on accurate assessment of application requirements and a good understanding of the parameters that govern pump performance.

Sizing Pumps and Pump Motors

  • July 2021
  • Number of views: 9160
Article

Service centers are often called on to provide replacement pumps or pump motors or to advise on pump retrofit and re-application projects. A good understanding of the parameters that govern pump performance is essential to help customers with these opportunities. The information here relates to rotodynamic pumps (centrifugal and axial flow impellers) and not to positive displacement pumps.

Bust Nine Common Motor Myths

Here are the facts about some of the things “they” say about motors and motor performance

  • June 2021
  • Number of views: 6382
Trade press article — Efficient Plant

Here’s a random collection of common misconceptions about three-phase squirrel-cage motors and the facts that deny them.

Electric Motor Noise: How to Identify the Cause and Implement a Solution

A methodical approach can narrow down which of the primary sources is to blame: magnetic, mechanical or windage noise

  • May 2021
  • Number of views: 22204
Trade press article — Plant Services

Determining the source of noise in an electric motor is often more challenging than correcting it. A methodical investigative approach, however, can narrow the possibilities and make it easier to resolve the issue—with one caveat. If the noise is due to something in the motor design (e.g., a manufacturing defect or anomaly), a solution may be impossible or impractical.

Best Practices for Electric Motor Storage

Do What You Can To Protect The Investment

  • December 2020
  • Number of views: 15558
Trade press article — Electrical Business

Storing an electric motor for more than a few weeks involves several steps to ensure it will operate properly when needed.  Factors like temperature, humidity and ambient vibration in the storage area also influence the choice of storage methods, some of which may be impractical for smaller machines or need to be reversed before the motor goes into storage.

Advice: Effects of High or Low Voltage on Motor Performance

  • September 2020
  • Number of views: 11614
Trade press article — RV News

To ensure the reliability of an RV’s electrical devices, especially electric motors, campers must know the service voltage of the hookup their RV is using. Teaching consumers to check that before they plug in the vehicle could save them many headaches.

Making Shaft Lift Adjustments in Vertical Turbine Pumps

Best practices for safe operation and easy accessibility.

  • June 2020
  • Number of views: 10053
Trade press article — Pumps & Systems

Vertical turbine pumps (VTP) commonly have rotors with multiple mixed-flow impellers (sometimes 12 or more) that are supported by a vertical pump motor. Such designs offer a lift adjustment for raising or lowering the pump rotor to properly position the impellers within the bowl. Depending on the type of pump, this may be critical for maximizing pump efficiency and could have a significant impact on motor load (current) and reliability.

How Up-Thrust Occurs in Vertical Turbine Pumps and Provisions to Control It

Up-thrust can occur during shutdown or when the pump is operating at flow rates greater than the allowable operating range.

  • June 2020
  • Number of views: 7674
Trade press article — Empowering Pumps & Equipment

Vertical turbine pumps depend on the vertical motor's thrust bearings to support the combined weight of the pump rotor and the motor rotor and to counteract the dynamic down-thrust that the pump impellers generate in lifting the liquid.

Why permanent magnet motors and reluctance motors are finding increased industry application

Squirrel cage induction motors should thrive for the foreseeable future, alongside emerging motor technologies that will present exciting opportunities to improve energy efficiency and reliability.

  • June 2020
  • Number of views: 8606
Trade press article — Plant Services

Those familiar with industrial electric motors have heard “DC is dead” for decades as advances in variable-frequency drive (VFD) technology for AC squirrel cage induction motors (SCIMs) seemed destined to replace their DC counterparts in every conceivable application.

But just as DC’s demise was greatly exaggerated, so too is the prospect of successor technologies replacing the installed base of SCIMs any time soon – whether for new applications or replacement motors.

Increasing Motor Reliability

Regularly Checking the Operating Temperature of Critical Motors Will Help Extend Their Life and Prevent Costly, Unexpected Shutdowns

  • February 2020
  • Number of views: 12069
Trade press article — Electrical Business

Regardless of the method used to detect winding temperature, the total, or hot spot, temperature is the real limit; and the lower it is, the better. Don’t let excessive heat kill your motors before their time.

Converting motors from horizontal mount to vertical mount

Examine mechanical factors that should be considered when applying a horizontal ball-bearing motor in a vertical mounting position

  • October 2019
  • Number of views: 8718
Trade press article — Plant Services

Occasionally an end user wants to take a motor designed for horizontal mounting and use it in a vertical position. This article addresses some of the key mechanical factors that should be considered when applying a horizontal ball-bearing motor in a vertical mounting position.

How to deal with wet or flooded motors

Saltwater becomes a major problem

  • October 2019
  • Number of views: 10528
Trade press article — Plant Engineering

Flooding in the aftermath of tropical storms, including hurricanes, monsoons and cyclones, and with their associated heavy rainfall can shut down hundreds of plants along the Gulf Coast, from Florida to Texas, as well as in other places around the world. And they are doing so more often. To get them up and running again, maintenance departments and motor repairers face the daunting task of cleaning muck and moisture from many thousands of electric motors and generators. The process involved in such situations can take weeks, if not months, and requires special clean-up procedures for motors contaminated by saltwater.

Wear ring clearance for centrifugal pumps

Understand the pump specific speed to help establish proper tolerance

  • June 2019
  • Number of views: 16655
Trade press article — Pumps & Systems

One of the most common repairs on centrifugal pumps is replacing worn or damaged wear rings. To restore efficient, reliable operation and prevent catastrophic pump failure, it is critical to restore proper clearances between the stationary casing wear ring and the rotating impeller wear ring. Although many pump manufacturers provide clearances and dimensions, some do not. There are plenty of aging pumps around from now-defunct manufacturers for which dimension data is simply not available.

In such cases, the rule of thumb that follows provides some guidance for acceptable running clearances, or the minimum running clearance chart in American Petroleum Institute (API) Standard 610 can be used as a guide.

Considerations for using VFDs with standard motors

There are areas of concern when trying to control both speed and cost

  • June 2019
  • Number of views: 8464
Trade press article — Plant Engineering

End users desiring speed and/or torque control often buy variable-frequency drives (VFDs) to modify existing applications where a standard induction motor is in place. Frequently, they try to control costs by using that existing standard induction motor. Before taking that path, however, it is best to consider a few areas of concern with the approach.

Know your degree-of-protection codes

What level of protection do your machine enclosures offer? Here's a guide.

  • January 2019
  • Number of views: 13342
Trade press article — Plant Services

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard 60529, “Degrees of protection provided by enclosures (IP code),” addresses the degrees of protection for electrical machines (motors and generators). The “IP” acronym means “international protection” but is sometimes referred to as “ingress protection.” The IP code is commonly displayed on the nameplates of metric machines that are manufactured to IEC standards.

EASA explains upcoming pump standards

New requirements in 2020 offer opportunities for improving system function

  • January 2019
  • Number of views: 8359
Trade press article — Pumps & Systems

Starting in January 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will begin implementing the first ever energy efficiency standards for freshwater rotodynamic (centrifugal and axial flow) pumps. These standards will directly affect pump manufacturers and, to a lesser extent, the pump repair market, while ultimately benefiting end users if the new focus can reduce their energy costs.

What’s in a nameplate?

Information helps the selection of the right motor regardless of application

  • November 2018
  • Number of views: 11077
Trade press article — Plant Engineering

Whether you're selecting a motor for a new application or a replacement for one that has failed, you need a reliable way to match the capabilities and performance characteristics of various motors with the requirements of the application.

Motor maintenance trends: 6 factors to evaluate

Recent EASA research studies provide new insights on repair vs. replace to help motors reliably drive machinery, pumps, conveyors, and other vital industrial equipment

  • June 2018
  • Number of views: 8540
Trade press article — Plant Engineering

When faced with an ailing or failed motor, plant operators typically consider whether to repair or replace it. According to a 2014 study conducted by Plant Engineering magazine for the Electrical Apparatus and Service Association (EASA), just more than one-half of plants have a policy of automatically replacing failed electric motors below a certain horsepower rating. While that horsepower rating varied depending upon the plant’s installed motor population, the average rating was 30 hp.

While such policies address a portion of the motors used at most plants, they do not cover what occurs with those motors. That question was addressed in a more recent research project commissioned by EASA that focused on the disposition of electric motors considered for repair.

Best practices for vertical turbine pump repair

Learn warning signs of needed repairs and avoid common mistakes

  • June 2018
  • Number of views: 12720
Trade press article — Pumps & Systems

Vertical turbine pumps (VTPs) are workhorses in the petrochemical, power generation and manufacturing industries, and prolific in municipal water applications that handle the primary intake load. Although these machines are ruggedly built, abrasive sediments in the pumpage take a toll, particularly on line shaft and pump bowl bearings, so periodic overhauls are often necessary. Rather than simply replacing the bearings, however, it is important that repairs address all of the issues needed to restore maximum operating life.

Understand vertical motor bearings

Vertical motors differ from horizontal units in various ways, including their oil-leak risks

  • April 2018
  • Number of views: 13897
Trade press article — Efficient Plant

Bearing construction is a key difference between vertical motors and horizontal motors that are mounted vertically. Vertical motors typically drive pumps using thrust bearings. Horizontal motors rarely have those types of bearings. Understanding relevant construction and configuration factors is crucial when confronting lubrication-related issues that can be associated with vertical-motor bearings.

Practical advice for motor protection

New IEEE standard provides guidance for motor protection for industrial and commercial applications

  • March 2018
  • Number of views: 8768
Trade press article — Electrical Construction & Maintenance

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has published a new standard: IEEE Std. 3004.8-2016, “Recommended Practice for Motor Protection in Industrial and Commercial Power Systems.” If you’re an electrical professional who deals with a broad spectrum of motor protection schemes, including low- and medium-voltage AC and DC motors, then you need to become familiar with this standard.

What's causing your high motor current?

Understand the source of the problem to tackle it effectively and efficiently

  • February 2018
  • Number of views: 9340
Trade press article — Plant Services

The most frequent concern about high current with a three-phase motor is high no-load current. But the broad issue of high no-load current isn’t the only three-phase motor issue to which plants should pay heed.

Understand motor/system baselines

  • May 2017
  • Number of views: 8096
Trade press article — Maintenance Technology

Vibration readings provide the best early warning of developing problems in a motor or system component. Other parameters to monitor may include operating temperature of critical components, mechanical tolerances, and overall system performance, including outputs such as flow rate, tonnage, and volume.

Solve vertical pump motor vibration

Knowledge of common vibratory forces helps diagnose and correct problems

  • February 2017
  • Number of views: 13794
Trade press article — Processing Magazine

High vibration is a common problem for motors that are installed on top of vertical pumps. Its source can be a mechanical issue with the pump, motor or coupling or even hydraulic forces from the pump.