Siemens and Decatur Industrial Approve Modification for Application

Front covers on IEEE841 motors are there for air flow. However, in some industries such as grain, paper and other highly contaminated environments the front covers collect product and do the opposite of what they are intended.

In this situation, a Decatur Industrial customer had several IEEE841 motors. These motors provide exceptional quality with the desired inpro/seals. The drawback was that the motor was constantly plugged up with product debris. The back fan cover can be removed and cleaned but the front cover is a solid circle and cannot. In most situations, this is fine, but in some unique harsh environments this causes quality issues.

The customer wanted to keep the features of the IEEE841 but eliminate the front bearing premature L10* life they were getting with the front covers in place. Decatur Industrial consulted with Siemens to approve the front covers being removed from newly purchased and repaired IEEE841 in this application.

Usually when a small motor fails, it is found to be NER (not economical to repair.) However, sometimes that small motor is a critical cog in the wheel and the time it takes to ship a new one is not realistic.

In this case, our customer had a flood on site causing a failure of a small motor in a critical application. It was a 12-14 week lead time for a replacement so the motor was shipped to our shop as an urgent repair.

Initial findings revealed possible armature failure with a rewind needed. The fields also needed be replaced. Most motor shops would have stopped there.  However, at Decatur Industrial, we partner with our customers in order to save them from unexpected downtime and related costs.  Our technicians conducted further armature tests to check the different types of windings.  This additional testing showed an armature rewind was not required. This discovery saved the customer $8,000 off the service cost.

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Siemens 1500 HP Case Study – Custom Engineered Solution

One of the most effective strategies for avoiding unplanned interruptions is correct installation at the beginning of the equipment’s life. If installation and commissioning is carried out carefully using the correct procedures, it is an investment in the machine´s serviceability and reliability for its entire service life.

In this situation, a customer was removing a steam turbine driver due to modernization with an electric motor.  The customer purchased a custom Siemens 1500 HP 4.1kV motor built at the Siemens Plant in Norwood, Ohio. A custom adapter base was also designed by Decatur Industrial, Siemens engineers, and customer engineers. The base would mount to the compressor skid frame/base as a drop-in, adapting to the Siemens motors.

Here you are witnessing the startup of the new motor driving the compressor. 

• You see the shaft spinning and driving the compressor up to full operating speed.
• Once at speed, the compressor had to run for several hours until the overall temperature of the motor, gearbox, and compressor all plateaued to a steady operating temperature.
• Finally, the motor had to be de-energized and a hot-shaft alignment performed to verify the thermal growth brought the shafts into perfect alignment
• In the video you can see steam and moisture that was developed from the motor driving the compressor.

The motor successfully started the compressor and is currently in use compressing steam for this customer’s applications. 

See how our FALK Select Partner status saved our customer $350,000.  Click below to read. 

Most motors run in dirty and harsh environments, which means they need more attention. This attention is not complex and usually very straightforward – but often overlooked. In this example, motors are operating in a brass stamping process which takes quite a bit of lubrication causing motors to operate in an oily environment. These motors are on the front line of the process and need to be cleaned regularly to allow them to breathe and not overheat.

What does this customer save by using Decatur Industrial for PMs? It roughly takes 4 to 8 hours to clean a full line of motors versus motor down time and lost production and cost to replace. This savings is in the $10,000 range per line.