Apparatus and method to protect motors and to protect motor life
First Claim
1. Apparatus for predicting the remaining useful life of a motor comprising:
- (a) model means coupled to said motor for monitoring temperature of the windings of the motor and for generating a failure rate for said motor in response to temperature of the windings thereof;
(b) integrating means coupled to said model means for integrating the failure rate to produce a failure incidence for said motor; and
(c) life projection means coupled to said integrating means for predicting the remaining useful life of said motor.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for predicting the remaining useful life of a motor uses the temperature and past history of the motor to determine the amount of insulation degradation for its prediction. The remaining useful life projection is provided at a display and may be used to trip the circuit breakers supplying power to the motor when projected life is shorter than the expected life or may be used to issue a warning that the rate of motor degradation exceeds the rate necessary to achieve the expected life for the motor.
Motor protection is provided by tripping the circuit breakers supplying power to the motor before the actual temperature of the motor windings exceeds the temperature at which catastrophic and irreversible insulation failure would occur while not tripping the breakers for momentary transients.
76 Citations
19 Claims
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1. Apparatus for predicting the remaining useful life of a motor comprising:
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(a) model means coupled to said motor for monitoring temperature of the windings of the motor and for generating a failure rate for said motor in response to temperature of the windings thereof; (b) integrating means coupled to said model means for integrating the failure rate to produce a failure incidence for said motor; and (c) life projection means coupled to said integrating means for predicting the remaining useful life of said motor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for predicting the remaining useful life of a motor comprising:
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(a) generating a failure rate for the motor responsive to the temperature of the windings of the motor at a first predetermined instant; (b) integrating the failure rate to generate a first failure incident for the motor; (c) repeating steps a and b at a second predetermined instant to generate a second failure incident for the motor; and (d) extrapolating the rate of failure incidence between said first and second predetermined instants to determine a projected time of failure for the motor. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. Apparatus for generating an indication of elapsed motor life, comprising:
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model means coupled to said motor for generating different failure rate factors as a function of the instantaneous temperature of the windings of said motor; and integrating means coupled to said model means for generating an indication of elapsed motor life as a function of said factors and motor operating time.
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Specification