Eric N. Wolf, P.E., Lockwood Greene Engineers, Indianapolis

Saving a Motor’s Life

There are many ways to kill a motor. There are also measures that can be taken to protect motors from the harm of poor power quality. Harmonics are the main culprits that can damage a motor and are generally produced by inverters within a variable-frequency drive (VFD). The VFD's inverters initially convert—or rectify—incoming AC voltage to DC voltage.