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How CoolBlue Protects Your Motors and Bearings

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CoolBlue Inductive Absorbers protect motors and bearings from high frequency currents caused by Variable Frequency Drives. Without CoolBlue, damaging currents emitted by variable frequency drives can lead to bearing damage and ultimately electric motor failure. Some types of bearing damage include pitting, fluting, frosting of bearings, lubrication break down and overall destruction of the bearing.

CoolBlue are inductive absorber rings that are installed on all three power phase lead wires between the variable frequency drive and the electric motor. Once installed, CoolBlue acts as a common mode choke that reduces transient voltages, stray capacitive currents and common mode currents before they reach the electric motor.

CoolBlue Application Diagram web

Installing CoolBlue in your variable frequency drive applications can prevent production downtime, additional maintenance, costly motor repair, and expensive bearing replacement. In addition to the benefits of protecting your bearings and motors, CoolBlue is easy to install, lasts the lifetime of your motor and is maintenance free.

Common applications for CoolBlue include:

  • OEM Manufacturers of HVAC Equipment
  • Paper/Bottling/Food/Chemical Manufacturing
  • Washdown Applications
  • Hospital, Office and Commercial Buildings
  • Automobile and Related Product Manufacturing
  • All Pump and Fan related applications
  • Wind, Solar and other renewable energy applications
  • All Variable Frequency Drive Applications

How to Select the Correct CoolBLUE products:

See our full blog on our CoolBLUE selection guide here: How to Select the Correct CoolBLUE for your Application

For more specialized motor applications that require higher reliability, Nanoperm Line Absorbers (NaLa) are recommended in addition to CoolBlue Inductive Absorbers. NaLa further reduces the variable frequency drive noise and peak values of current. Unlike CoolBlue, NaLa is installed on each of the power phase wires, not over all three power phases. NaLa is to be used in conjunction with CoolBlue to further increase the reliability and uptime of your motor system.

The CoolBlue and NaLa products are sized by HP and total cable length from the VFD to motor.  If there are two cables on each output leg then the distance needs to be multiplied by 2 or so on for each added cable per phase.  There are 4 popular sizes that are stocked that cover from 1/4HP to 400HP. When lead lengths are longer then 150ft, 300ft, 450ft, and 900ft, then more cores are added to the system. For more information on how to properly install CoolBlue, see this installation guide.

One major advantage of installing CoolBlue and NaLa is the reduced installation time needed over other options.  Also, there is no need for an insulated bearing on motors with over 100 HP. CoolBlue and NaLa are readily available at Dreisilker Electric Motors, Inc.

In addition to the usage of CoolBlue in VFD applications, you can also protect your motors with Aegis Shaft Grounding Rings. The Aegis Rings work by diverting the damaging voltages away from the bearings by sending it to ground through the motor frame. The rings are made of conductive microfibers that encircle the motor shaft and is installed on the drive end of the motor. To learn more about the Aegis rings, read our blog Aegis Shaft Grounding Rings Protect your Motors and Bearings.

 

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Dreisilker Launches New ERP System

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Dreisilker is excited to announce the launch of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software hosted by Rocket Software. The new ERP was launched on Saturday, April 7th and is a cloud based platform.

“When considering a new ERP system, we thought about how we can improve our processes so that our customers have a better experience with Dreisilker” said Marketing and Branch Operations Manager Lynn Dreisilker. “The new ERP is vital for our pursuit of continuous improvement because we now have a tool that will help us develop and enhance our processes in a number of departments. We also have plans in the short term to integrate the ERP with our ecommerce platform shop.dreisilker.com. The integration of the program will allow us to improve the customer buying experience and will help our staff take care of the customer in a more efficient manner.”

To celebrate the launch, Dreisilker held a ribbon cutting ceremony to kick start the new software. The accounting and IT departments were asked to do the honors of cutting the copper (wire) ribbon with President, Leo Dreisilker.

 

Common Belt Problems: Keeping Your Belt Drive Systems Running Smoothly

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Belts, along with electric motors, shafts, and pulleys, are a critical component of power transmission in belt drive systems. While belts require very little maintenance, improper belt tension, misalignment of pulleys, mishandling of belts, and environmental factors are common problems that can shorten the life of your belts and bring your system to a halt.

Improper Tension of V-Belts

If a belt is not tensioned properly, it will ride too loose or too tight on the pulley. A belt that’s too loose on a pulley will cause slippage, which leads to heat build up from friction. This heat will damage your rubber belts and cause the belts to crack and break. A belt that’s too tight can add stress to your bearings and cause your motor to over amp, leading to motor failure. Making sure that your belts are tensioned properly is simple and can help prevent the added costs associated with electric motor or belt failure.

Here are a few signs that a belt is improperly tensioned:

  • Cracking of the belt
  • Pieces broken off
  • Hardened appearance
  • The belt squeals during startup
  • Pulleys wearing out prematurely
  • Over amperage of your motor
  •  Worn out front motor bearing

We recommend the use of a tension gauge like Optikrik by Optibelt to ensure proper tension. To learn more about improper tension and how to check the tension of your belt, read our blog How Improper Belt Tension can Affect your Belt Drive System.

V-Belts that are not tensioned properly:

V-Belt not tensioned properly

Misalignment of Pulleys and how they impact your V-Belts

Pulleys need to be aligned properly in order to prevent premature wear on belts and pulleys, increased vibration and drive instability. The following are the types of misalignment:

  • Parallel: A pulley is outside the plane of the other pulley, but their shafts are parallel
  • Angular: The pulleys are in the same drive system plane, but their shafts are not parallel.
  • Combination: Pulleys can be misaligned with a combination of Parallel and Angular misalignment.

Always check the alignment of pulleys after tensioning the belt because sometimes during tensioning, the pulleys can move. To check the alignment of pulleys, you can use a laser alignment tool or a machine straight edge. Check out our blog on our how experience field service technicians use Laser Alignment to align pulleys: How to: Laser Shaft Alignment

Types of Misalignment:

Motor Misalignment pulley and belt

Mishandling of V-Belts

Mishandling of belts can also lead to premature belt failure. Here are a few things to keep in mind when using belts:

  • Belts should never be forced onto pulleys. If the belt is too tight to put on the drive system, remove one of the pulleys and then install the belt.
  • When working with belts, never twist, bend or crimp the belts.
  • When replacing belts on drive systems, use matching sets. It is a good practice to replace all belts on a belt drive, even if a belt looks in good condition.

Environmental Factors the impact your V-Belts

Even though belts are durable, there are still some environmental factors that affect them:

  • If possible, keep belts in an environment less than 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Do not allow grease, oil, lubricants and etc to contaminate the belts.
  • When changing out a belt, it is a good practice to clean the pulley grooves. Any dust or debris can negatively affect the belt and the pulley.
  • Harsh environments such as high humidity, extreme temperatures and direct exposure to sunlight can cause premature failure.

Understanding the common issues found with belts and knowing how to prevent them, can help improve the up-time and reliability of your belt drive applications.

How to find a replacement V-Belt: