Excess motor vibration can cause downtime even if the motor itself has not (yet) failed due to this cause. For example, the motor drives a conveyor. The vibration from the motor transfers to the conveyor, and causes fasteners to prematurely fail. Rollers go askew, and the line stops.
Adjusting the rollers seems to fix the problem, but it does so only temporarily. Often, the tech solves the wrong problem. What you need to solve is the cause of the loosening rollers. And a very likely cause is excess vibration. The most likely source is the motor.
Let’s say put a vibration analyzer on the motor and verify it’s the vibration source. To solve for this, you need to go down a list of potential causes. This list includes:
- Motor misaligned with load.
- Motor out of balance.
- Problems with coupling.
- Problems with how the motor is mounted.
This last issue seems to be fairly common with conveyor systems. The failure is often visually apparent. In Part 2, we’ll discuss what to look for.
