May 2020

30 n MOTORS May 2020 www.drivesncontrols.com Smart motors aren’t taking over – yet R emember the Nokia 3310 phone? You only used it to make calls, send messages and play Snake, and it was almost indestructible. Now we do everything on a single smartphone that doesn’t last much longer than a year or two before becoming obsolete. The same could prove to true of smart motors – making them more susceptible to obsolescence. By contrast, a classic Brook Crompton or Baldor cast-iron motor could keep spinning for decades, providing it was correctly maintained. According to a recent report from MarketResearch.biz, the global market for smart motors was worth $1.2bn in 2017, and will reach $1.8bn by 2025 – a CAGR of 5.28%. To contextualise this, the total global market for electric motors is worth $214.5bn, according to Grandview Market Research. It is evident that industry is not making much use of smart motors yet. Previously, a motor was simply a device for converting electrical energy into mechanical energy, but smart motors and sensors now allow plant and production managers to collect important data about a motor’s performance and perform advanced preventative maintenance and management functions, without needing onsite data analysis tools. Smart motors are one of the easiest, quickest and most efficient ways of improving a machine’s performance. However, investing in smart motor technology doesn’t have to mean buying a smart motor. You can instead retrofit an existing motor with a digital smart sensor. Self-regulating Unless used with control mechanisms such as inverters or soft-starters, traditional motors are either on or off. By contrast, smart motors can regulate their own frequency and voltage to alter their speed. Built-in microprocessors, quadrature encoders and current monitors allow the motor to decide when to start, stop and change speed gradually, thus improving energy consumption, cutting losses and providing much more precise control. The arrival of smart motors is thanks to artificial intelligence, the IIoT, and predictive maintenance software that can be used to monitor the performance of machines and prevent issues such as overheating, overloads, contamination and vibration. The instant collection and communication of data about a machine’s Jonathan Wilkins, marketing director for the obsolete parts supplier EU Automation, gives a non-partisan assessment of the state of the smart motor market and explains why it reminds him of a classic mobile phone.

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