March 2019

PWE provides some insight into how preventative and actual maintenance is done with smart VSDs. T oday’s inverter drives are smarter than ever, able to look after themselves and a range of connected plant equipment such as fans, pumps, motors and conveyors. How then is this achieved? Whatever industry you’re in, unscheduled downtime can be one of the biggest headaches. From an unexpected stoppage on a conveyor line to a jammed pump in a water treatment works, the impact on productivity or service availability can be felt throughout an organisation. Then there is the associated cost of fixing the problem, all of which can quickly hit profitability, as well as damaging a company’s reputation. Of course - automation products have long been able to help in this regard: Variable speed drives (VSDs) for example have always monitored parameters such as motor current and output torque, providing early warnings of impending problems with rotating plant equipment and machinery. Today’s information-rich VSD displays and connectivity to HMIs mean that error codes are presented with meaningful troubleshooting information, so that engineers no longer have go running for manuals to diagnose and rectify a fault. Going beyond routine fault codes current technology offers significant advances in plant monitoring and diagnostics, taking the uncertainty out of maintenance to help make unscheduled downtime a thing of the past. In particular they can play a key role in moving from a regime of preventative maintenance to one of more cost-effective predictive maintenance. The intelligent functionality of modern VSDs provides all the tools that are needed to reduce unplanned downtime, detecting problems in the likes of bearings, motors, pumps, fans and conveyors – as well as in the drives themselves – before they cause a failure. With early warnings of impending failure and pro-active requests for servicing, engineering teams can make informed decisions about when to schedule any necessary maintenance. Consider, for example, a drive controlling the motor on a conveyor line. Unscheduled stoppages on conveyors that then halt the whole production line can be devastating for many businesses, with downtime frequently costing thousands or even tens of thousands of pounds per minute but many of the typical problems that will halt a conveyor line are easy to detect within the drive. Common issues such as worn bearings for example cause friction and can be detected by a higher output current that is needed to overcome the increased load. Conversely, a decrease in load – suggestive of wear in drive belts – can also be detected. Such diagnostics are simple to set up, requiring minimal adjustment to parameters. Different levels of monitoring and alarms can be defined to meet individual requirements, with local display on the drive itself or an HMI, or remote monitoring over a network. In our conveyor example, all that needs to be defined are upper and lower limits for motor output current and the maintenance team will receive timely warnings of bearing or belt wear. In fan and pump applications, the relationship between speed and torque can be indicative of impending problems. These characteristics start to trend away from the norm due to wear as a component approaches the end of its service life. It can also reveal problems such as blocked filters and pipes. Again, warnings about issues before they impact on efficiency of operation gives engineers the best possible opportunity to schedule maintenance at the most convenient time. Some VSDs use sophisticated algorithms to monitor fan efficiency, pump curves and 20 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk March 2019 Smart Maintenance Management Focus Inverters that look after themselves