It’s Time for Preventive Maintenance on Motors

Available for any WEG motor with frame sizes from 100 to 450, the brand new Motor Scan device monitors its status, making it possible a smart and fully “4.0” maintenance schedule. The captured data is stored in the cloud and the user can use an App, available for both iOS and Android devices, on their smartphone or tablet to access it.

by Fabrizio Dalle Nogare

The new Motor Scan launched by WEG – a leading global manufacturer of motors and drive technology – enables real-time monitoring of motors via a smart device App in order to maximize uptime and facilitate preventative/predictive maintenance.
This new technology allows maintenance professionals to make informed decisions about the health of installed motors and react accordingly depending on the data captured. The WEG Motor Scan system uses Industry 4.0’s digital technology, including Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Big Data Analytics to give clients a competitive edge in this dynamic and challenging business environment.

The captured data are available on the App for iOS and Android devices
“The Motor Scan is a very simple and small unit to be basically screwed quite easily to the motor”, explains Marek Lukaszczyk, Marketing Manager Europe and Middle East at WEG, whom we met at the last SPS Italia. “The device contains a battery that lasts about 2 or 3 years. When this expires, WEG supplies a new one free of charge”.
Available for frame sizes from 100 to 450, WEG’s Motor Scan measures the vibration and temperature of motors to detect anomalies. Easily retrofitted via a mounting clamp, the sensor tracks vibration, surface temperature as well as running hours, and will provide data on speed, start/stop time, load and efficiency via Bluetooth.
For ease of use the captured data is stored in the cloud and the user can use an App, available for both iOS and Android devices, on their smartphone or tablet to access it. Users can also access the data on laptops and desktops via a dedicated web portal.

Eliminating the inefficiency of reactive maintenance
Essentially, WEG Motor Scan takes the monotony out of manually collecting and monitoring data, removes the guesswork of preventive maintenance and eliminates the inefficiency of reactive maintenance. Also, by training maintenance professionals to take on the specialised requirements of predictive maintenance, it provides the opportunity for companies to upskill staff and expand their capability. “The Motor Scan aims at enabling preventive maintenance by monitoring the status of motor and its parameters – continues Mr Lukaszczyk -. A further upgrade will see the use of a gateway for continuous monitoring of the motor load and efficiency. These are useful to fine-tune the user’s requirements, thus avoiding any waste and inefficiency”. Powerful analytics help to process the data and predict pending failures or hidden problems based on frequency spectrum analysis. Warning levels are pre-set based on acceptable baselines of temperature/vibration and software is able to plot performance curves with the captured data.