Electric motors are often kept in a place or used in an application that makes them susceptible to contamination from the environment it is operating in and because of that, motor failures are accepted. However, as this customer discovered, sometimes it can be a different reason altogether.
A Decatur Industrial Electric customer was experiencing frequent and rapid failure of their DC electric motors. The DC motors were used in a steel mill and were suffering up to four failures a month at a $6,000- $12,000 cost per failure – not including downtime and emergency maintenance costs.
Jeff Meyer, Director of Industrial Solutions, along with our team of technicians performed root cause failure analysis on several failed motors. Then, our team went to the steel mill to evaluate the motors and application in operation. During his evaluation, we discovered the customer was supplying the incorrect brushes for the load and application. By having the wrong brushes installed, it was contributing to the contamination of the motor. After the correct brushes were installed, the failures stopped. The next step? D.I.E. technicians will be inspecting and performing routine DC motor maintenance at the plant during normal shutdowns to extend the motor lifecycle.
Are you experiencing repeated equipment failures in your facility? Let Decatur Industrial partner with you to provide longer motor life.
Sam has been with D.I.E. for almost ten months – and she has wasted no time learning various areas of our business. Sam started as a forklift driver in the Warehouse & Logistics Department and has recently moved over to the Shop where she is currently learning various aspects of disassembly.
University, has received a $1,000 scholarship to help cover education related expenses for the 2018/19 school year. She will major in Accounting and minor in Finance. Long term, she hopes to obtain her M.B.A.