What are the safeties of a motor?

Electric motors transform electrical energy into mechanical energy by harnessing magnetic fields to apply torque, or rotational force. Electric motors can be brushed, meaning they use additional parts to generate a current, or brushless, which use permanent electromagnets instead. They can run on direct current or alternate current. Some electric motors are even “unrolled” and apply linear force rather than rotational force. No matter the differences in specifications, operating an electric motor—or any electric equipment—requires the utmost safety. While most people can operate their electric motors for everyday use without incident, most safety issues arise during attempts to repair them. In this guide to how to safely use an electric motor, we will go over some of the dos and don’ts of motor operation and maintenance for all the different variations of electric motors.

Keep a Clean Area

The components of an electric motor are sensitive. Instrumental in ensuring that they can operate at peak performance is not allowing the motor’s environment to become dirty. If components become jammed with dirt, dust, debris, or aerosolized oil, they have to work harder, which can significantly shorten your motor’s lifespan. Before you start to worry about taking a motor apart to keep it clean, you can preempt a great deal of that down-and-dirty repair work by keeping the area directly around the motor clean. This will introduce fewer problems.

Keep the Work Area Well-Lit

When working with electric motors, precision matters. In order to work with maximum precision, always be sure to operate your machinery under adequate lighting. This is just as fundamental to operations as maintaining clean surroundings. Whether this means using a powerful flashlight or lighting the entire room, don’t operate or repair your electric motors under anything less than sufficient illumination. Not being able to see what you’re doing could do serious damage to your motor or physical harm to you.

Don’t Let Wires Get Exposed

Working with electricity can be a dangerous thing, even if you’re an experienced worker. AC motors, which often receive their power directly from your power grid, pose a particular risk of shock or electrocution due to faulty wiring. Wires are insulated for good reasons, and a tear in that insulation can be extremely dangerous. If you see that the insulated wiring in your electric motor has failed and left the metal exposed, repair or replace the wiring to prevent an unfortunate incident.

Use Glue With Caution

Some repairs to electric motors may only necessitate powerful instant-bonding agents, better known to civilians as super glue. These strong adhesives often come in repair kits for your motors, but you should never underestimate the power of a good super glue. Remember that a little goes a long way, and that you should never let this adhesive make contact with your skin. Point your applicator away from the body and do not squeeze the tube hard, as this would run the risk of discharging far more glue than you need.

Beware of Overheating

All electric motors are designed to operate within a safe operating temperature. After continued usage or difficult tasks, electric motors are prone to overheating. If they start to overheat, you should be able to smell that something is amiss. Do not operate an electric motor that cannot properly regulate its temperature. Keep a nose peeled for the telltale odor of burning components and be prepared to take your motor out of commission if this is the case. Accumulation of dirt, dust, and debris, especially around your motor’s cooling fan, can also lead to a foul burning smell. If this accumulation should block your cooling fan and impede proper temperature control, make sure to clean the motor with a vacuum or by gently wiping down the affected areas.

Listen for Something Wrong

Just as you should be able to smell when something is wrong, you should be able to hear when something is wrong as well. Corrosion, dirt buildup, and other forms of degradation in an electric motor will cause unfamiliar noises and vibrations that indicate unsafe operation due to either a mechanical or electrical issue with the motor. If your DC motor uses brushes and a commutator, these additional parts can fail and interrupt or even halt operation. If you hear unusual noises from your motor, check for misaligned or imbalanced parts.

Wear Your Goggles

Electric motors work at high speeds. DC servomotors can approach 17,000 revolutions per minute. When you’re working with an electric motor in a CNC mill or lathe, these high speeds can send plastic dust and other dangerous byproducts your way. Always remember to use eye protection when working with the motors that power CNC equipment.

Schedule Routine Maintenance

Everyone knows that you should try to make a visit to your physician every year for a routine physical. By the same token, your most important electric motors should receive professional oversight from time to time as well. By taking a preventative maintenance approach to your motors, you can anticipate breakdowns and save money on lost productivity and outright replacements. A routine inspection often includes testing connections, circuit breakers, and load imbalances. Such an audit of your electric motors will make sure that you can operate them safely and effectively.

Know When Not To Go Under the Hood

Over the course of usage, the moving parts of electric motors can wear down and cause the motor to fail. At the first sign of motor failure, your impulse may be to get in there and try to fix it yourself. In the technology world, there’s a term known as “bricking,” which is when ill-advised and ill-fated modifications to an electronic device cause it to irreparably fail—effectively transforming it into a plastic brick. Just as one might brick a smartphone or laptop with unqualified repairs, you can brick your motor by doing the same. Part of how to safely use an electric motor is knowing when to defer. For extensive electric motor repair, whether it’s your DC motor gearbox or the motor itself, turn to the experts at Moley Magnetics to perform the repairs you need.

Motor Protection – Different protection units are used for safeguarding electric motors. Motors are used at various levels in various applications. Induction motors are hugely used at the domestic level as well as industrial or commercial level. Different categories of induction motors are used in industrial units. The big industrial motors are costly, thus the protection of a motor is an important parameter. Different motor protection units are used for the protection of motors. The motor protection was divided into various categories depending upon the operation of the motor. The different protection categories for a motor are discussed below.

Overload Protection:

Overload protection is the type of protection that is against mechanical overload conditions. Mechanical overload conditions can occur in a motor due to various reasons when a motor is in a running state. The overload situations can result in the increased temperature of the motor which can damage the motor. The protection used for the overload conditions can disconnect the motor in overload conditions from the main power supply. When the motor is overloaded due to any circumstance the windings of the motor photo subject to fire as the temperature of the motor is increased in overload conditions and as a result, the windings of the motor can be damaged. Similarly, if the outlets of the motor are covered and there is no point for the heat emission then the temperature of the motor increases as the motor keeps on running this can also result in damaging the windings of the motor. The overload protection units trip in case of an overload condition and the supply of the motor is cut-off and the motor is protected from further damage.

Overcurrent Protection:

Whenever an excessive amount of current passed through the motor, the motor protection unit trips. Circuit breakers and fuses are used as protection units for the different motors. Overcurrent protection can protect personnel from electric shock, the control equipment of the motor, the conductors of the motor branch circuits, and the motor itself from high currents. 

Low Voltage Protection:

The protection unit or the device is used to disconnect the motor from the voltage source or the power source in case the voltage drops down below the rated value for the motor. The motor operates again whenever the voltage is balanced to the normal value. Different protection units have their own resetting points. Some protection units manually reset. It automatically resets to normal following different algorithms. Some protection units reset to normal after some predefined interval of time. Some units can be reset to normal when the voltage stabilizes to its normal value.  

Phase Failure Protection:

Phase failure protection is used to protect the motor in case of any phase failure during the operation of the motor. It is normally used in three-phased motors and upon failure, in any phase, the motor disconnects from the power supply. A motor without phase failure protection keeps on running even if a phase failed in the circuit which can damage the motor or it can affect its operation of the motor. If one phase failed the other phase starts to deliver more current to the circuit which can burn the motor or the circuit it is attached to.

Phase Reversal Protection:

It is a protection technique that is used to protect a motor from the phase reversal condition. Phase reversion in a motor can occur due to numerous reasons which can cause safety and operational problems. If two connections out of three connections of a motor are reversed somehow the motor starts rotating in the opposite direction. Upon detection of the opposite rotation of the motor, the protection unit for phase reversal disconnects the motor from the main supply. 

Ground Fault Protection:

Ground fault protection is used to protect the motor from different short circuit conditions. An excessive amount of current flows through the motor or the circuit in case of a short circuit. Ground fault protection is used to disconnect the motor in case of any ground fault.