Food Processor Uses Meg-Alert To Prevent Motor Failures That Plague Plant With Expensive Downtime

www.meg-alert.com

Processors rely on the latest technology to efficiently handle volumes of food items. As you would expect, each processing operation involves multiple electric motors. The movement and handling of foodstuffs absolutely depends on the trouble-free operation of motors. At the same time, food processing operations also require absolute cleanliness.

A Wisconsin chicken processor was continually plagued by motor failures. The root of the problem was the continual cleaning process that included high pressure hot water. Despite their best efforts that included a program of WEEKLY motor testing, failures continued. These motor failures disrupted operations and caused expensive downtime, lost production, delayed orders, and expensive repairs.

All motors operate by the passage of electricity through insulated "windings". Electricity creates a magnetic field that in turn causes the rotation of a shaft that is connected to whatever produces work – a fan, pump, assembly line, etc.

Moisture, chicken, and water don´t mix!

Humidity is a huge contributing factor to insulation failure. Moisture is a good conductor of electricity. If excess moisture is introduced to the motor windings – either from exposure to rain, snow, condensation, or the process of cleaning production lines – this moisture can allow electricity to "leak" across the windings rather than be contained within the insulation.

When a motor starts it requires more electricity than is necessary to operate it under normal conditions. The result is the extreme likelihood of a motor – with lessened insulation resistance – failing when started.

Motor operation, under ideal conditions, is engineered to be constant and trouble free for tens of thousands of hours. And yet, actual motor life is typically less than HALF this ideal. Why? One of the reasons is the mechanical "wear and tear" that motors are subjected to. But the main reason motors do not reach their engineered life is electrical failure. In fact:

Greater than 80% of motor failures occur due to electrical failure at startup.

The chicken processor found the solution to be simple and proven and inexpensive. Meg-Alert "Motor Guard" was installed to precisely measure the quality of the insulation resistance within motors. When – not IF – this resistance falls to levels that would cause the motor to fail (that is, "burn out") at startup, the Motor Guard sounds an alarm - in advance! AND, the Motor Guard is also connected to the motor starter so that the alarm level will disconnect this circuit, making it impossible to start the motor!

Motor failures were prevented in advance! Motor Guard enabled preventive maintenance that ALWAYS costs less than repairs or replacement.

Call Meg-Alert Corporation for more information at 866-768-1817, or email info@meg-alert.com. More details can also be found online at www.meg-alert.com.