Nonintrusive condition monitoring of electric drives and rotating machines

There are an insufficient number of faults for either drives and machines manufacturers or users to build up the experience to allow for instinctive diagnosis. On site maintenance regimes have had to be evolved in line with new working practices and reduced manning levels, so that plant personnel are not intimately acquainted with new equipment when it is installed. To compensation for this situation, monitoring and diagnostic systems can be built into drive systems to warn of impending faults and to locate and diagnose them. This philosophy can be extended to cover a complete drive system, incorporating electron controls, power electronics, electric motor, transmission and drive equipment. The author discusses the existing techniques of test instruments and nonintrusive condition monitoring. The concept of, and practical development of a self contained drive monitoring unit is also discussed