Went to my site forty miles north this morning to do further investigations on the motor that we shut down due to high vibration earlier in the week. Opened it up. Looked inside. Brought a guy in from a company that deals with large motors. He and I agree. This motor’s gotta come out.
It weighs almost nineteen tons.
The people who designed the building in which it sits saved money on accessibility, so we have to remove a section of the roof to get it out.
We do have a spare, over a quarter of a million dollars of spare, sitting in the warehouse half a mile away. I’m going to do some electrical tests on it in the morning. I want to make sure it’s still in good shape before we commit to the swap.
And getting the two motors swapped out, that’s probably another couple of hundred thousand. And then there’s the repairs for the damaged motor.
The cause of the failure comes down to some heavy fiberglass baffles inside the motor that are held in place rather precariously by some quarter inch nylon screws. The screws broke, the baffles tried to go through a fan impeller, the impeller bent and tore, and that’s where the vibration came from.
There’s also a little damage to the electrical insulation, but not much. Getting the impeller changed, though, that’s not happening where the motor is right now.
I’m having a lot of fun dealing with the people who make the motor, too, just like always. I am mentally tired.
