It worked here, but not in Mexico

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Rexx

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Metro Atlanta (Marietta)
Last year we installed a 400V system for a customer in anticipation of them moving thier operations to Mexico, which they have done. It all worked fine, here, until they moved it. The customer called this morning & said when they hooked it up in Mexico it started burning up equipment right away. Not being familiar with Mexican electrical systems, or being able to see it from Georgia, I can't offer much help to them, or provide more info here. Does anyone know much about the Electrical Sytems in Mexico that MIGHT give some insight?
 
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Rexx

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Location
Metro Atlanta (Marietta)
I guess I should've given a little more info about the Mexican post! What WE installed here in Georgia was a 3 phase, 5 wire distribution system to feed a line where they manufactured motors for the Automotive industry, i.e. power windows, tailgates, etc. We fed a transformer w/3 phase 480Volt primary to get 3 phase 400Volt wye secondary. As I said, it all worked fine here, but when they moved the line there the Factory Smoke started coming out of the equipment. Not knowing the Primary voltage in Mexico, I really can't tell much more. I know that they did NOT take the transformer with them, so if they used 480volts to run the line that MAY have been the problem. I haven't heard back from the Customer, yet, so I don't have much to go on.
 
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Rexx

Member
Location
Metro Atlanta (Marietta)
To Jraef: The Customer did tell us 400Volts on the initial install, & it worked @ that voltage for a full year (almost). They didn't have a problem until they moved it without taking the (very expensive) transformer with them. I'm getting the feeling that they may have ASS-u-me-d that 480 would work for them. No hole in MY lip!
 
Jraef

Jraef

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Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
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Electrical Engineer
Rexx said:
To Jraef: The Customer did tell us 400Volts on the initial install, & it worked @ that voltage for a full year (almost). They didn't have a problem until they moved it without taking the (very expensive) transformer with them. I'm getting the feeling that they may have ASS-u-me-d that 480 would work for them. No hole in MY lip!
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Yep, sounds like they tried to get cheap on the transformer issue. We get a lot of people in here asking about 400-480V conversion issues, but usually they are asking about 400V 50Hz vs 480V 60Hz. If that's the case, I usually tell people that motors will run faster (or slower as the case may be) but because the nominal V/Hz ratio is the same, they will be fine. BUT, if you designed the system to run on 400V 60Hz, and they connected to 480V 60Hz, then the magic smoke will seep out.
 
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btharmy

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
Did they not hire an electrical contractor to build and engineer their plant in Mexico??? That is who should be sweating the "smoking equipment" problem. My license isn't any good over there anyway.........I don't think.
 
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