GE’s new lower-cost, onsite motor rewind capability claims to help increase plant effectiveness.

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Many plant operators have reportedly experienced difficulties in repairing large motors. In most cases, these critical links in the system have forced entire plants to shut down for several days as they are removed, transported, rewound and reinstalled. The losses in productivity to a company can be significant.

For the last 30 years, GE has offered its onsite GEGARD 400 motor rewind system for motors up to 6,000 volts. Now it is more than doubling the system’s capability – covering motors up to 14,000 volts, regardless of horsepower or motor speed, according to Richard Meng, program manager at GE Energy.

The advantages, says Meng, are the ability to conduct the rewind on-site, at the owner’s plant, to avoid delays in bringing the motor to a repair shop. In addition, he notes, time is also saved by no longer requiring an alternative vacuum pressure impregnation (VPI) process at the repair shop.

“Its flexibility makes it easier to insert coils into stator slots, which helps to further reduce an operator’s downtime,” Meng says. “The GEGARD 400 HV system gives you everything you get with VPI, just faster,” he continues. “It’s built on a proven technology, and it’s been thoroughly tested to rigorous GE standards, passing relevant IEEE and IEC standards with top marks.” 

The new system is reportedly designed for facilities with large ac motors that cannot afford extended downtime. These include utilities, manufacturing, mining, metals, oil and gas, cement, and pulp and paper. It can also be used for synchronous condensers, smaller size generators with higher speeds that are usually difficult to rewind using conventional hard coils.

www.ge.com 

General Electric

- Edited by Chris Vavra, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com