January 4, 2018
The below video is a 15 minute segment of an hour long presentation given by Todd Hatfield of HECO at the 2017 Reliability, Process, and Maintenance (RPM) Symposium. This presentation discusses common preventable causes of electric motor failures. This section of the presentation discusses bearing related failures as bearings account for about 51% of all …
August 21, 2017
Everyone who deals with vendors has a choice to make. Should you beat them up and show them “who’s boss” or should you partner with them in the spirit of cooperation? Which one do you choose? Can you do both? There are a lot of articles on managing vendor relationships, many people much smarter than …
July 6, 2017
Category I, Category II, Category III and Category IV – What are they and what do they have to do with vibration analysis? Why should they matter to my corporation? Through The Vibration Institute, Mobius Institute, Technical Associates of Charlotte, and various other groups offer certification in vibration analysis. More importantly, they are certification to …
May 25, 2017
It is very regularly that we receive a call from a client that a fan is vibrating and that we need to send someone out there to balance the fan! A good portion of the time when we arrive, it is indeed a balance issue, where the fan has had a buildup of material on …
April 11, 2017
When an electric motor fails, a plant must make decisions in a timely manner, but the decisions made can have a major impact to reliability in the long run. Should you repair the current electric motor or replace it with a new one? This presentation covers some direction to making a plan in order to …
February 27, 2017
This is an electric motor repair case study on a 800HP, 900RPM, 4000V Coal Crusher Motor for a Midwest-US based coal fired power generation plant. In 2006 the utility came to HECO after years of repetitive failures circling around the electric motor’s rotor. This was originally presented at the Reliability, Process, and Maintenance (RPM) Symposium on Sep 13-14, …
February 22, 2017
In the world of technology, more specifically maintenance technology, there are so many different tools we are using to make decisions. We use vibration analysis, ultrasonic analysis, motor current analysis, thermography, and so many other technologies that many times the most simple and cost-affordable technology is sometimes forgotten: YOUR EYES! Visual inspections can tell you …
January 27, 2017
Tom Spettel, Senior Reliability Engineer, Category IV ISO Certified Vibration Analyst. The below video is a case study of a large 3-stage air compressor that was directly coupled to a 2-pole (3600 RPM) motor that had vibration problems after the air compressor was re-located to a different building. This was originally presented at the 2016 …
January 11, 2017
Todd A. Hatfield – Vice President of Engineering & Repair, HECO This is the third article (video) in a series of articles on The Basics of AC Induction Motors. The first video explored the basic principles of AC Induction motors focusing on magnetism, electromagnetic induction, AC current, and rotating magnetic fields. The second segment discussed …
January 3, 2017
Shaft currents can have a destructive effect on electric motor bearings. This article, with information from our friends at AEGIS Shaft Grounding Rings, is intended to inform professionals about these voltages and their effects on bearings in electric motors. Because of the high-speed switching frequencies in PWM inverters, variable frequency drives induce shaft currents in …
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