HV motor condition monitoring-the end user´s view

An HV motor is likely to be a significant asset in any industry. HV motors are high cost items with long production lead times and are typically used in critical applications. An unplanned outage involving an HV motor is therefore highly likely to incur considerable financial penalties to the user, both in terms of repair and downtime costs. Companies practising proactive maintenance will need to monitor the condition of such machines closely. This condition monitoring activity is therefore driven by the continuing quest to maintain, if not to continually improve, levels of availability, product quality and asset value at minimum net cost. The aim of condition monitoring is to provide the maintenance engineer with a clear picture of the health of those machines monitored. The authors understand a machine´s health to be the forecast length of time for which the machine will produce an output of defined quantity and quality. The process of condition monitoring therefore involves the measurement or observation of aspects of a machine´s operation which are characteristic of its health, the analysis of the data collected in order to determine the nature and severity of any developing faults, the prediction of the remaining service life. The final step is the communication of this information, in a clear and timely fashion, to those responsible for making maintenance decisions. A set of user´s requirements for a condition monitoring programme follows directly from the foregoing