Motor help

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mattsilkwood

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Location
missouri
About a year ago we installed a big ammonia compressor with a 700hp 480vac motor.

It has three sets of 500mcm running to it about 75' from the drive.
The 500s are going to a tap box right above the peckerhead and makeup to 3 sets of 350 DLO cable.
The DLO then goes to the peckerhead and makes up to the motor leads using polaris taps.

About six months into service it bunrt the leads to B phase.
The drive meters and logs voltage and current among other things, everything looked fine on the log so we chalk it up to a loose connection.
I personally put it all back together, checked and rechecked every connection from the switchgear on down.

A couple months pass and it does the same thing. Same phase.
This time we took the motor off and sent it to the motor shop, they went through it and said it was in perfect condition.

This whole time the maintenance dept has been doing weekly PM which has consisted of shooting all the connections with a thermal gun while it is running and powering down and looking at all the connections for obvious signs of trouble. Everything has always been great.

Last night the drive faulted out because it lost its network connection, this is the first time it has done this.
Today we went in and checked everything and just like always everything looks fine.
We did put our recording meter on thinking the drives metering system isn't reading true.

Does anyone have any ideas about what could be causing this?

Im looking for any and all ideas, at this point we are chasing our tail.
 
I have sometimes seen damage like this on a compressor load which wasnt grounded properly through the sealtight and a bugnut grounded to the frame of the unit not enough to trip the ocp but ran enough current to ground to melt the feeders insulation back to the beam clamp holding it to the bar joist just below the unit. After snapping a 1in rope trying to pull it out in the live gear after changing my underwear I had to cut the wire at the elbow then pull it out and replace the pipe and sealtight to the unit with the proper ground wire installed. This all had to be done on overtime of course............
 
I have sometimes seen damage like this on a compressor load which wasnt grounded properly through the sealtight and a bugnut grounded to the frame of the unit not enough to trip the ocp but ran enough current to ground to melt the feeders insulation back to the beam clamp holding it to the bar joist just below the unit. After snapping a 1in rope trying to pull it out in the live gear after changing my underwear I had to cut the wire at the elbow then pull it out and replace the pipe and sealtight to the unit with the proper ground wire installed. This all had to be done on overtime of course............
I wish it was that simple. Everything is solidly grounded.
 
PWM drives can cause high VSWR, which can cause hot spots

PWM drives can cause high VSWR, which can cause hot spots

High VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio) can cause hotspots on feeders between drives and motors. Suggest checking with MFR for there recommended filter on your motor feeders.

You mentioned PM's checking for hotspots, were these done under the motors normal load, or any extraordinary normal loads?

Hotspots caused by VSWR are always hotter when conditions are correct. You are looking for a unique frequency combination. In most PWM drives you can change the carrier frequency which may affect the situation in a positive or negative manner. The MFR may also provide guidance for this. I'm sure if one of the PE's which look over our shoulders here may be able to provide a solution to test this situation with a fluke 734 or the like...
 
Do a search for load reactors here,

Do a search for load reactors here,

There is quite a bit posted in old posted threads regarding load reactors, ( I referred to these in my last post as filters, which is there function not there name )
 
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