I was recently asked to hook up a machine that has 50 hertz listed on the name plate. I have seen name plates that state between 50-60 hertz operation. Could this machine be damaged at 60 hertz rather than 50 hertz?
Flow chart:
Motors: No? Probably fine. Resistive loads and things with power supplies generally don't care about incoming frequency.
Yes? What kind? DC? Probably fine, but check voltage. DC motors and an AC feed means a rectifier, 99% of them are frequency insensitive.
AC? What voltage?
400V nominal (includes 380, 400 and 415V), go to Load?
230V? Possibly a deal breaker, see V/Hz ratio.
Load? If it's a centrifugal pump, probably a deal breaker. Centrifugal pumps will increase the HP requirement at the cube of the speed increase. So 50-60Hz is 120% speed, the pump will require 1.2x1.2x1.2 = 173% of the original HP. The motor HP will increase 20%, but unless that motor started out being grossly overnsized, it won't work.
V/Hz ratio. Motor torque is based on a designed ratio of voltage and frequency. If you alter that, you change torque and thereby HP. If you maintain the same ratio (within tolerance), no problem other than the load type above, but if the motor is 230V 50Hz and you give it 230V 60Hz, you are lowering the ratio and the motor will actually produce less torque. If the motor load was close to the designed HP, that means there will be less torque, more slip and more heat in the motor, it will overload. If your motor was at least 20% over sized for the load, you might be OK though.
If it is 400V nominal, the V/Hz ratio works out to be roughly the same as a 460V 60Hz motor, so other than the speed change (see Load) then its likely OK.