Why Reliability Engineering That Ignores Context Will Fail Fast
Reliability is a subordinate topic to industrial and manufacturing engineering that has been branching out into its own more and more over the past few decades,... Read more.
How Ignoring VFD Guidelines Led to Bearings, Belts, and Drive Failures
When we are called out on service calls to test long-term failures in variable-frequency-driven environments, we sometimes encounter unique situations that bypa... Read more.
Why This 800 HP Steel Mill Fan Motor Failed and What Tests Revealed
The combustion fan motors at the steel plant are 800 horsepower, 1785 RPM, 4160 Vac, 101 Amp AC induction motors designed for severe duty applications and an 80... Read more.
Diagnosing Electric Motor Issues with Advanced Surge Testing
When reviewing the IEEE and EPRI large electric motor studies and what was considered ‘excellent maintenance,’ it is quickly noted that a lot of the technol... Read more.
Why U.S. Grid Stability Depends on Smart Politics and Policy
During the hottest day of the year so far, in Washington, DC, a team of over 400 wind, solar, and battery storage professionals and staff of American Clean Powe... Read more.
How Forensic RCFA Unlocks True Root Causes of Machine Failures
A tremendous amount of time, productivity, and production can be lost using improper troubleshooting and evaluation techniques. In this article, we will provide... Read more.
AI Isn’t Wise: Why Human Judgment Still Matters in Tech
This article was co-written with the support of OpenAI’s ChatGPT version 4.5 enterprise edition.
If you read or hear the hype systems deemed Artificial Intell... Read more.
What the Large Motor Reliability Studies Actually Found and Why It Matters
One of the most frequently quoted studies related to electric motor reliability is a 1983 Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) project performed by General ... Read more.
Supra Harmonics in VFD Systems: A New Frontier in Reliability Risk
As part of a larger research and development project involving multiple industries and distributed energy, we developed a unique tool called EMPOWER (Electric M... Read more.
Why So Many Electric Motors Are Quietly Running Beyond Safe Limits
Over the past four years, we have seen an increase in field troubleshooting calls related to catastrophic failures of specific types of equipment. When failed c... Read more.
Best Practices for Electric Motor and VFD Inspection and Monitoring
Electric motors of all types remain the prime mover of industrial and commercial applications, efficiently converting over 68% of electrical energy to mechanica... Read more.
How to Diagnose High Shaft Current Motor Bearing Failures with ESA and MCSA
In some cases, diagnosing high shaft currents in electric machines requires additional testing. In a small motor-conveyor application, frequent bearing failures... Read more.
How Reliability Strategies Cut Compressed Air Energy Costs
Compressed air systems are an essential part of most plant operations but can be a plant's most inefficient source of energy. To operate a one-horse air motor, ... Read more.
2025 NREL Wind Powertrain Meeting: AI, Bearings, and Reliability
This year, we participated in the NREL Wind Drivetrain Reliability Collaborative Workshop from February 17 to 19, 2025, in Golden, Colorado, which corresponds w... Read more.
Your Predictive Maintenance Program Is Broken – Here’s How to Fix It
The definition of reactive maintenance is to react or repair a system once it has run to failure. This failure can be unexpected due to an undetected issue or a... Read more.
Partial Discharge Mechanisms: A Technical Deep Dive for VFD Motors
The article ‘Partial Discharge Explained: Causes, Effects, and Prevention generated a few questions from companies and engineers associated with high-voltage... Read more.
Single Axis vs. Triaxial Vibration Sensors: Which One Delivers Better Data?
Over the years, two groups of vibration analysts have been involved in the use of triaxial sensors. We want to express our thoughts on the subject from an end-u... Read more.
How Precision Alignment Can Transform Motor Reliability and Efficiency
By Howard Penrose and Eric Foreman
As maintenance and reliability professionals, we know that misalignment reduces the life of bearings and other components. St... Read more.
P-F Curve Fundamentals: Aligning Maintenance and Test Frequencies
One of the most important aspects of any condition-based maintenance program or maintenance inspection is knowing the optimal frequency of performing the tasks.... Read more.
Top 5 Rules for Accurate Vibration Sensor Placement and Setup
By Howard Penrose and Matt Knuth
Vibration analysis is a powerful diagnostic tool for identifying mechanical and electrical issues before failure. When execut... Read more.
