Reduce motor failures and boost OEE
With motor failures representing the single biggest cause of downtime across industry, with significant associated costs to business, Steve Pethick of Rockwell Automation describes how an intelligent, data-driven approach to motor control holds the key to efficient, profitable manufacturing.
For many manufacturers, the cost of downtime due to any given motor failure can be significant, extending into thousands or even tens of thousands of Euro per hour of downtime. And the most expensive motor is not necessarily the most critical: a failure on a single, small motor on a humble mixer, for example, might be enough to bring a plant to its knees.
Intelligent Motor Control delivers increased efficiency of motor communication and monitoring, enabling manufacturers to make informed decisions about their processes, giving them the data they need to help improve production |
A generally accepted rule of thumb is that the cost of a catastrophic failure is ten times that of predicting the failure and dealing with it on a scheduled stop. The sad fact, though, is that most of the ten million motors installed within industry every year across Europe still rely on traditional control and protection measures that don't contribute in any way to predictive maintenance. So how might a forward-thinking manufacturer go about addressing this issue to reduce downtime, lower overall maintenance costs, give greater control of production uptime and reduce motor repair costs?
Intelligent Motor Control
Bringing motor control and protection strategies into the 21st Century, Intelligent Motor Control (IMC) from Rockwell Automation combines the strengths of the Integrated Architecture infrastructure with a comprehensive range of intelligent motor control and protection devices, and condition monitoring systems. Whether the motors in question are fixed speed (using direct-on-line or soft-start control), variable speed (from Low Voltage and Medium Voltage AC drives to complete engineered drive solutions), or part of a servo driven motion system, Intelligent Motor Control fully integrates the motor control with the wider control system. It combines proven communication networks with tailored hardware and software solutions to help manufacturers capture and use critical operational information.
Whether the motors are fixed speed, variable speed for part of a servo driven motion system, Intelligent Motor control fully integrates the motor control with the wider control system, helping manufacturers to capture and use critical operational information |
Intelligent Motor Control gives eyes and ears to the plant floor, using sensors and control devices with a high degree of embedded local intelligence to feed critical data back into PLCs, plant floor condition monitoring units and higher level monitoring systems. The increased efficiency of motor communication and monitoring allows manufacturers to make informed decisions about their processes. Rather than simple on/off information, it gives them the data they need to help improve production, in terms of preventing downtime, increasing productivity and boosting profit.
The Intelligent Motor Control solution can be readily tailored to help meet the needs of application, and is fully scalable to be viable on any project from an individual motor to a full production line to a complete plant operation. Typical systems integrate drives, intelligent relays, motor control centres and various sensors and other monitoring devices on a common data-driven communications network to deliver precise motor control intelligence as part of a strategic maintenance programme. As applicable to stand-alone drives as it is to cubicle upgrades and networks of distributed motor starters, Intelligent Motor Control can help to reduce downtime, potentially alerting you to motor problems long before failure occurs.
AC drives have long provided users with data about motor performance. Intelligent Motor Control transforms this data into improved information, with the Intelligent Architecture infrastructure allowing engineers to interrogate the drives from any location on the network (and potentially from anywhere in the world). This allows a faster response to flagged motor problems, helping prevent the process from being disrupted or the motor from being damaged.
Overload relays with embedded intelligence give users far greater diagnostics information than traditional devices. These diagnostic parameters assist in pinpointing problems with trip and warning identification. The inputs can be used to monitor a variety of signals, including auxiliary contacts of branch protection circuit breakers and contactors. Information provided by the electronic overloads can allow engineers to act well before motor or associated electrical issues become a problem.
“Scalable from a single motor to a full distributed network, Intelligent Motor Control can help to reduce downtime, alerting you to motor problems long before a failure occurs.” |
Motor Control Centres as part of Intelligent Motor Control feature built-in pre-configured networks to allow engineers to access the full spectrum of data available from today's intelligent devices. The devices deliver an array of operation and electrical information, including predictive alerts that can notify operators of problems prior to system failures.
Further, as part of Intelligent Motor Control, higher level controllers and PCs can take inputs from condition monitoring systems such as Rockwell Automation’s Entek range, while PLCs can take inputs direct from sensors on the plant floor. All these inputs can be combined as part of Intelligent Motor Control, with the data from mechanical monitoring of the motor transmitted on the same network as the electronic control information to higher level systems, where it can be interpreted and presented to users as meaningful operational information. That level of integration of the real-time condition monitoring processes can play a key role in the modern strategic maintenance approach, helping manufacturers to effectively predict, prevent and react to equipment problems to minimise costly downtime.
A proven, scalable solution
Intelligent Motor Control is a proven technology, delivering proven results across the whole spectrum of industries. It is a key tool in managing one of industry's most essential assets, but most importantly it is a fully scalable solution, as viable and useful to the smallest SME as to the largest blue chip company. And recognising that the most important motor in maintaining a company’s production is just as likely to be the smallest, Intelligent Motor Control is also cost-effective to implement across the spectrum of applications, from a single, fractional kW motor to a factory-wide network of discrete high power motors and high density motor control centres.
An Intelligent Motor Control solution can also be expanded over time, either as budget permits, or on an ad-hoc basis during equipment upgrades and refits, or as part of a planned, ongoing OEE improvement strategy.
For more information, please e-mail us at: info_at@ra.rockwell.com with ref: Motor Control
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