Environmental debris and particles can quickly destroy bearings, windings and brushes on expensive electric motors and add considerable expense to service, maintenance and repair bills. But it can be a misbelief that by covering your motor, they will overheat.
Kinder & Co founder and Chief Executive Officer, Neil Kinder explains, “maintaining a clean operating environment seems the most obvious answer to optimising motor performance. However, it is not always possible to keep electric motor drives dust-free as the nature of many bulk materials tasks and conveyor systems mean spillage and debris is virtually inevitable.”
“Most motors under crushers and pumps can be very large and weigh between 150 and 200 kilograms,” Neil Kinder continues. “How then do you get that out, aside from resorting to winches? It becomes a big issue to get the dust out. Take for instance the conveyors in the crushing and screening industry – on a belt conveyor high in the air, the wind may blow some of the dust off the motor, but dust underneath the crusher gets into very confined and hard to reach places. It also applies to the paper industry, where pulp spillage blocks the motors.”
“Dust is hazardous to machinery, particularly electric motors. It leads to more maintenance; it involves pulling motors out, and it’s not just the cost of replacing the motor,” Neil continues. “Motors are not that expensive. The expense is in the labour. You need a fitter and an operator. One fitter can’t work by himself – there also has to be someone who can manage the paperwork to do all the tag outs. You also need an electrician on-site to assist the fitter. So, the bottom line is if you maintain your machinery properly and protect it from dust exposure, you won’t have the motor problem.”
Kinder & Co’s K-MotorShield Motor Covers are simple to install. They are made of fibreglass are therefore very lightweight and easy to manoeuvre. But most importantly they do the job intended – they keep motors debris-free and stop them from overheating.
For more information on the K-MotorShield Motor Covers contact one of our Sales Engineers on 03 9587 9244 or [email protected]
You can also read our Case Studies and get a customer’s opinion on how the K-MotorShield Motor Covers have improved productivity by reducing down-time and reducing maintenance costs.
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