Top Tips for Maintaining a Variable Speed Drive
Variable speed drives (VSDs) are designed to provide many years of efficient and cost-effective service. Motion Tronic explains five essential tasks necessary to keep your VSDs in good running order.
How to Maintain Your Variable Speed Drive
VSDs are extremely useful for maximising efficiency and productivity on production lines of all kinds. When they are well maintained and functioning optimally, they provide great benefits, but those benefits quickly dissipate when the drives are not properly maintained. A production line can quickly grind to a halt when this happens, meaning that damage control needs to be done as quickly as possible in order to get machines up and running again. The best way to avoid this is to follow a good maintenance routine. Here are five simple actions to take on a regular basis in order to keep your VSDs running.
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1. Keep The Drive Clean
Industrial environments are generally rather dirty, with plenty of dust and debris. These can collect on the drive and other electronic components and cause them to stop working. It is thus very important to keep the drive and clean with regular wiping and air spraying.
2. Maintain The Temperature of The Drive
VSDs are often housed in enclosures that may get a little warm from time to time. It is thus important to include good air control systems and make sure that air can circulate around the units.
3. Keep The Drive Dry
Check the drive regularly to ensure that it is dry. Any amount of moisture can cause serious problems with your VSD, so keep water well clear of it.
4. Check And Tighten the Electrical Connections Regularly
With continuous daily use, electrical connections can come loose. When this happens to a VSD, it can adversely affect the function of the drive and possibly cause it to break down completely, so check and tighten these connections regularly.
5. Carry Out Regular Inspections
Effective maintenance involves regular visual inspections of your VSDs. Check for all the above issues, examine the connections, fibre optic cables, emergency circuits and cooling systems, as well as testing the unit to check that it is still delivering the desired results.
Trust Motion Tronic to Supply You with Your Variable Speed Drives and Other Components
Motion Tronic specialises in installation, service and support of automation systems across all industries. Contact us if you need help with variable speed drives and all other aspects of automation and integration in your business.