 Electric Motor Testing has diminished with the ever increasing frequency of corporate re-engineering. What this means for electric motor testing maintenance programs is billions of dollars of lost revenue through increased electrical repair costs, downtime, and waste in industrial and commercial companies. Modern electrical maintenance practices often do not take into account the importance of electric motor testing for proper equipment uptime and plant competitiveness.
Electric motor testing maintenance and management programs are designed to improve equipment readiness and uptime while reducing capital
overhead. This program consists of particular maintenance and management tools designed to aid the maintenance engineer in electric motor systems and their care.
The following are some important electric motor testing items:
Electric Motor Testing Recommended Items:
Electric Motor Impulse Testing
Electric Motor impulse testing is an integral part of predictive maintenance of electrical motors. Through the following questions the influence that extensive impulse testing has on a motor is investigated. Can impulse testing damage healthy or deteriorated insulation? Can DC Resistance, Inductance, Megger or HiPot tests diagnose weak turn-to-turn insulation? After failing an impulse test, are motor with weak insulation able to operate? Are motors with a turn-turn short capable of continued operation? This was accomplished by putting a low voltage motor through extensive testing rigors, until inducing a failure. Following the failure, additional testing investigated the possible deteriorating effects on turn-turn insulation due to impulse testing beyond the motor’s dielectric breakdown. NOTE: This paper was edited from the original version of the IEEE paper published in 2003.
Electric Motor Rotation Testing
Check for fan or pump motor rotation when testing offline with the MCE. Fans may continue to slowly rotate due to drafting in the
Plenum. Pumps that are connected to a common header may continue to rotate if other pumps connected to the header are operating.
This will adversely affect the Standard Test results, possibly creating higher than normal resistive and inductive imbalances.
Wound Rotor Motor Testing
Wound rotor motors have a three-phase winding wound on the rotor which is connected to three phases of start-up resistors in
order to provide current and speed control on start-up. Failed components in the resistor bank are common and often overlooked
when troubleshooting. These faults can have a significant impact on the overall operation of the motor and should be given considerable
focus when troubleshooting these motors.
ElectricMotor Insulation Resistance Testing
Electric motor insulation exhibits a negative temperature coefficient, meaning as temperature increases, resistance decreases. This would
lead you to believe that insulation resistance of a de-energized motor will decrease after starting the motor. However, most often
the resistance will initially increase after running due to moisture being evaporated by the increasing temperature of the windings.
The governing standard (IEEE43) on insulation resistance testing requires a temperature correction to 40 degrees Celsius,
which could quickly turn acceptable measured resistance readings into unacceptably low corrected resistance readings. Before
sending a motor to be refurbished, consider space heaters.
The recommended off-line in-service electric motor tests are -
- Stator winding resistive imbalance
- Stator winding insulation resistance (Meg-Ohm checks)
- Polarization Index (PI)
- Step Voltage test
- Surge test
The recommended spare electric motor tests are -
- Stator winding resistive imbalance
- Stator winding insulation resistance (Meg-Ohm checks)
- Polarization Index (PI)
- Step Voltage test
- Surge test
The recommended new/refurbished electric motor tests are –
- Stator winding resistive imbalance
- Stator winding insulation resistance (Meg-Ohm checks)
- Polarization Index (PI)
- Step Voltage test
- Surge test.
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