June 2013 Newsletter

Motor Life Cycle and Failure

Motors fail for a variety of reasons, the two most common bearing failure and over-current.  Bearing failures account for over 60% of motor failures and often start a cascade effect leading to overheating in the motor, causing insulation to fail.  Over-current failures will often occur when a motor is undersized or the voltage drops below the nameplate rating.

Depending upon the application, design life could vary from 20,000 – 40,000 hours.  There are many factors that will come into effect with a long service life and environmental hazards such as higher temperatures can damage multiple parts of the motor, breaking down both the electrical insulation and bearing grease.  Some applications have unavoidable severe conditions and will suffer a shorter life.    In those types of applications, we recommend using either severe duty or motors that meet the IEEE841 standards, to help mitigate some environmental hazards that can cause corrosion, abrasion, or other contamination of the motor.

The best way to preserve motor life is by adhering to the manufacturers guidelines for maintenance as well as mitigating conditions that reduce motor life such as dirt, voltage imbalance, over/under voltage, vibrations, lack of overload protection, and high moisture.

You can find the Installation and Operating Manual for Baldor motors by clicking here.

 

Now Stocking 5000 frame motors

The Rocky Mountain Baldor Denver warehouse is now stocking motors in our above NEMA  5000 frames up to 800HP.  Our Salt Lake Warehouse will be stocking motors up to 500HP.

These motors are high efficiency and come standard with a ground lug in the conduit box, DE shaft slinger, and a 3-year warranty.  Additionally these motors come standard with 100ohm platinum winding RTDs (2-per phase) and space heaters.

These motors as always are available to you 24hrs a day.

June-DYK