Tech Tip All We Need to Do is Lubricate an Electric Motor Right?

Media bias is not only found related to politics and public policy, but also how we perceive the reliability and maintenance community.  From advertising dollars and marketing being presented as technical articles and information to the idea that ‘digital transformation’ solves everything, or that infrared is a complete electrical reliability program.  As noted in my…

Energy Savings through the Application of Neutral Harmonic Filter: A Case Study

It is established that neutral and ground harmonic content will load transformers and systems. Prior work has been limited as to the direct relationship of this additional loading on power consumption for a facility. Over the past 24 months applied research has been performed on the measured impact of neutral and ground harmonics and energy…

EMPATH Continuous Monitoring Special Applications for Energy Analysis

The EMPATH™ family of Electrical Signature and Motor Current Signature Analysis (ESA/MCSA) systems go well beyond analyzing electric motors, generators and wind turbines.  It provides prognostic and time to failure estimation (TTFE) capabilities for AC/DC electric motors, synchronous machines, servo motors, machine tools, generators – including utility scale, and transformers.  Not only will it identify…

Concepts in Reliability Keeping it Simple and Random Thoughts

As I just mentioned to a friend – I seem to be waxing philosophical this past weekend as I complete reading “Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, Biography of a Genius,” by Marc J Seifer. I would not have tripped over this and several other excellent texts had I not started returning to…

Evaluating Missing Wedges and Coil Movement with ESA IEEE Paper

Two significant issues in wind power asynchronous generators are magnetic wedge loss and coil movement resulting in winding faults.  Most of the time the failures occur unexpectedly or require borescope or visual inspections of the generator stators.  In this paper we will identify how both conditions can be detected during operation through Electrical Signature Analysis. …

UIC ERC Industrial Assessments Project 1999 Paper

Through proper application of simulation and modeling within industrial environments, greater impact for energy, waste and production improvements can occur. Modern simulation and modeling systems can help determine impacts of energy and waste reduction concepts on production and vice-versa. Through a 1999 Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs funded project, improvements of over 40%…

Evaluation of Stator and Rotor Interturn Stress with Electrical Signature Analysis in Variable Frequency Drive and Wind Generator Applications

Abstract— Electrical Signature Analysis is the application and analysis of Voltage and Current data collected on electrical machinery systems.  The measurements are converted to amplitude modulated Fast Fourier Transforms that can be evaluated for power, machine and powertrain conditions.  Electrical and mechanical conditions are determined through their effects on the airgap magnetic field.  One of…