5 Tips to Keep your Electric Motor Healthy

The electric motors used today are more competent and dependable than their earlier counterparts, but sometimes they fail to perform. To get the most out of an electric motor, it is essential to provide it with an ideal operating environment along with proper maintenance. Here, we will discuss ways to keep your electric motor in a good working conditions.

Tips To Maintain Your Electric Motor

Following are some of the basic tips to maintain an electric motor for all of your equipment:

Do Proper Lubrication:

Lubrication plays a vital role in increasing the life of a bearing. There are two common bearing lubrication items- oil and grease. While installing a new bearing assembly, it is very crucial to check whether the bearings are per-greased by the manufacturer. Over greasing or under greasing is not good. Over greasing slows down heat dissipation from the bearing. This causes tolerance stack up, which may cause defects in bearing. This can also result in an increase in the existing defect, thus reducing the life of the bearing.

Avoid Excessive Vibrations:

You should always shield the motors from extreme vibrations, particularly when they are not working. When motors are subject to vibrations in their idle state, it causes the bearings to vibrate and rub away their grease. This results in increased friction between the bearing and other metal surface. To avoid this, ensure that the motors are not subjected to continuous vibration that are caused by another running motor nearby, or some other tool that could cause vibrations.

Moisture Management:

One of the major concerns for electric motors is their vulnerability to moisture. There may be moisture build up in the interior parts of an electric motor, if it remains unused for a long time. This creation of moisture can cause rust problems and other issues. This issue can be controlled with the help of a grease. It is usually infused with a rust prevention material while oiling up bearing assemblies.

Electric Motor Losses:

Typically, there are three types of losses in an electric motor, which can lead to a failure of insulation, thus leading to motor failure. These losses are:

• Core (Iron) Losses: Heat that is dissipated during the core losses, further degrades the core, thus causing more heat and greater core loss. You can reduce these losses by using thinner lamination and core lengthening.
• Rotor Losses: These losses usually occur in the rotor conductive bars that may be made larger to increase the size of the cross-section. The resistance is also reduced by larger end rings.
• Stator Losses: These types of losses take place as current flows through the winding. You can reduce the stator losses by increasing the volume of wire and using thinner insulation.

Keep a Maintenance History:

Always make sure that you keep a maintenance history. Write down what is done, every time a motor is examined or repaired. This will help avoid duplicate services from taking place. By this, you will also have a reference of problems that the motor has faced in the past. A proper maintenance program, which is carried out consistently consists of predictive and preventative maintenance. This helps to know the health of a motor, and how long it will last. If you follow all the tips for maintaining an electric motor mentioned above, then it will help keep your engines running for a longer period, thus in turn getting you a good return on investment.