The Motor Whisperers

Last fall, in the best interests of your servo motors, I wrote “Four Easy Ways to Keep Your Motor Up and Running”.   Maybe things haven’t gone so well and maybe you didn’t keep that motor up and running and now it’s failed.  Worse yet, it’s now out of warranty.  So what’s the good news?   The good news is, this is probably not the death knell for your motor and you DO have some options.

Need servo motor repairs immediately?  Click this link:  ACS Repair Form.  Want to know more about your servo motor first?  Being electronically curious myself, if I were in your shoes, I might want to try to figure out what’s up with my servo motor before shipping it off for repairs no matter how much you just love us here at ACS.  (Tip to the wise:  testing your motor is fine but RESIST the urge to take it apart!)

For those of you inclined to so some testing, here are some tips:

1. Check the ground resistance between the motor body and the motor terminals.  This should be approximately 100 ohms or above.  Use a multimeter  to test  this.
2. Find the winding resistance by connecting between the terminals.  This should be about 200 ohms.  Larger motors could have a lower ohm value.  Likewise, smaller
   motors could have an ohm value of about 100.  You can check with tech support at the manufacturer of the motor for the resistance specifications on your model.
3. Check the motor at the winding terminals rather than the cable end because the wire in the cable could be corroded or broken.
4. Disconnect the conductors from the drive control end and meg between cables and each cable to ground.  The megohmeter uses much higher voltages (usually 500VDC or 1000VDC) to check resistance.  Between the cables, it should give nearly the same value.  It should be 1-3 ohms for medium rated motors, higher for smaller motors.  Between each connector and ground, the megger value should be relatively high, about 1000 ohms or higher.  Your manufacturer can give you more specific values.
5. Still not sure what’s going on?  Go back to the motor and disconnect the cable which isolates the motor.  Recheck the terminals which will tell you whether the problem is with the cable or with the motor.

Or, to keep it really simple, just ship her off to ACS’s “motor whisperers”.   These guys may seem like magicians, but what they really are is persistent, experienced, and precision-oriented AND they have the best test and repair equipment available.  How many times have I heard my Dad say “have the right tool for the right job” and boy was he was right!   No cheap chumping on test equipment in the repair shop!

Want more information? Here are some quick links to click: Mitsubishi Electric Automation motor repairs; Allen Bradley servo motor repairs; Toyo Denki motor repairs; Baldor motor repairs; Kollmorgen motor repairs; Mori Seiki motor repairs; Okuma motor repairs; Yaskawa Motor Repairs .

Evaluations and quotes are free with no obligation.  Let our “motor whisperers” save you time, money and aggravation.  Call our always helpful customer service team at 800-605-6419 if you’ve got questions.