Motor/Inverter monitoring software

[61900]

Hi Ladies/gents

Is there any software on the market that monitors the current used by the motor, through an inverter to a PC. We currently use SEW Movitrac inverters but SEW doesn't seem to have advanced as far as PC monitoring. The intention is hopefully to preset 85% of full load current (continuous via delay for start up torques) into the software so the PC will flag the potential fault before failure.

--------- More than 85% = Alarm on office PC
Motor------Frequency Inverter-----------PC I
--------- Less than 85% = No alarm on office PC
Kind regards
Stuart

 

[ozmosis]

Hi Stuart
are you sure about the software from SEW? They have MOVITOOLS® MotionStudio engineering software used on the Movitrac drives. I haven't used it before but I'm sure it will monitor current.
Alternatively, they will have any number of open protocols such as Profibus, Ethernet, Modbus etc available that you could connect to some type of PLC and monitor everything, including current.

 

[61900]

Hi Oz

Thanks for the reply.
SEW use a plug in controller that you can attach to the inverter and visually monitor current, speed etc. This is helpful when monitoring a particular motor, however our plant has over 300 motors and would take an engineer some time to collect the readings, he would then have to note it down and complete again, let's say on a weekly basis, to monitor. Again, on part of our plant, the readings can be read via the HMI but he would have the same problem for the rest of the plant that doesn't.
If the information could be sent back to a single PC and flag the potential failure, this would leave the engineer free to look at continuous improvement project etc and ensure we repair the fault before it stops the plant.

Kind regards
Stuart

 

[ozmosis]

Stuart
With so many motors/drives on your plant, it would be prudent to connect them via a HLI (High Level Interface) such as the ones mentioned: Profibus, Ethernet, Modbus etc. This would involve either a two wire (RS485) connection or RJ45 cable etc.
In this way, you would have access to all data coming from the motors (via the VFD) and data from the VFD itself.
This data can be fed into your PC or any centralised control system.
I guess it depends on the downtime costs in your plant if it viable to look at the investment of some automation compared to someone noticing a problem individually.

 

[LionelHutz]

a two wire (RS485) connection

Just a small point to note - RS485 is a 3-wire connection.

 

[DTR2011]

As the price for fiber optic (FO) devices, converters, etc have gone down, you may also want to consider using FO to make your communications connections. There are many advantages to using FO over copper, especially if you have noisy electrical environments, long runs, grounding issues, etc.