# Thruster motor / machinery brake questions



## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

I'm calling it a thruster motor cause my engineer referred to them as such. They look like a linear actuator on good Russian steroids. They only have about a three inch stroke....lol. They operate a big azz machinery brake. They have two limits. Up/on? Down/off? Problem is they take a minute to engage. PLC has a timer function built in but one of them has gotten slower. So slow its outside PLC time limits. Motor shop boss said look for hydraulic resivor and fill it up.... I did not notice a hydraulic setup yesterday. Any thoughts. Ideas. It's for this POS


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

Are there actual physical limit switches? That would be more reliable then the timers because of the mechanical wear that is gonna get worse over time.


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

Little one. Not field labeled. Be right back


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

Mo info. The brakes function. It's just the HMI ain't seeing em. I know it's a limit function. When I find em I will adjust and all is good. I want to know how to make the thruster speed up.


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

What's this?
Looked like a drain plug.



















It ain't. 









You know as much as I do. 
Will research further


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

Nice. Service manual is 25$ PDF.


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## John (Jan 22, 2007)

nolabama said:


> What's this?
> Looked like a drain plug.
> 
> 
> ...


Two things
He screw in the picture is propply a speed control. It Also may be time for an oil change.


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## John (Jan 22, 2007)

Oil fill plug looks to be on top..right above the nameplate.


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## John (Jan 22, 2007)

Know what's funny... There is paint still on the piston rod. Do you know if it even works?


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

John said:


> Know what's funny... There is paint still on the piston rod. Do you know if it even works?


Yes the rod is inside of what looks like the rod. It's a heavy duty Mondel brake assembly so sayeth the Internet. Got everything adjusted with limits. One is still slower than the rest but inside the PLCs limits. Lol. Those safety covers suck to take off with no faults present. What the hell I got a few more hours of work .... I will see of the screw is for speed. Bet it is. The one you see pictured is of course not the one that is slow. The pictured one is the easy one to get to.


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

First time I have seen a linear motor that looked like that. Sure is a short stroke.
I wish you could take a video of this thing operating?
Does your camera do short video clips?


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

John Valdes said:


> First time I have seen a linear motor that looked like that. Sure is a short stroke.
> I wish you could take a video of this thing operating?
> Does your camera do short video clips?


Yes. I can but not sure if I can post. Will try. Only deal is I gotta ride the machinery deck up....


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

Well that is some sorta needle valve and it did speed things up. I can't seem to post the video's of it moving. Riding the machine deck is always cool so I will try to get em up. 

That bolt that is above the nameplate does have fluid behind it. It seemed to be under pressure so I did not open it all the way.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

It's probably a high ratio platetary gear linear actuator, I've seen them used on big ass weir gates on dams, same mfr. If the oil gets old, it turns to glue. I watched some guys at a dam trying to clean one out, glad that wasn't my job.


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## John (Jan 22, 2007)

nolabama said:


> Well that is some sorta needle valve and it did speed things up. I can't seem to post the video's of it moving. Riding the machine deck is always cool so I will try to get em up.
> 
> That bolt that is above the nameplate does have fluid behind it. It seemed to be under pressure so I did not open it all the way.



This one....right:whistling2:
View attachment 19513


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

John said:


> This one....right:whistling2:


Negative. It's a 13/16 drain plug style bolt reverse of where that hex head is at.


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

JRaef said:


> It's probably a high ratio platetary gear linear actuator, I've seen them used on big ass weir gates on dams, same mfr. If the oil gets old, it turns to glue. I watched some guys at a dam trying to clean one out, glad that wasn't my job.


My motor man was describing a big ass gate when he gave me a heads up on if.


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## sparkytrician (Feb 11, 2010)

What you have is an Eldro brake thruster that was installed under a licensing agreement with Mondel, hence the "Meldro" label plate.

Here is a link to the Eldro website with information on the thruster:
http://www.emg-automation.com/en/th...lectrohydraulic-thruster-eldro-standard-unit/

For a .pdf : http://www.emg-automation.com/nc/en...en-download/download/eldro-technical-data-gb/

I deal with these all of the time.


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

sparkytrician said:


> What you have is an Eldro brake thruster that was installed under a licensing agreement with Mondel, hence the "Meldro" label plate.
> 
> Here is a link to the Eldro website with information on the thruster:
> http://www.emg-automation.com/en/thrusters/brake-lifting-devices/electrohydraulic-thruster-eldro-standard-unit/
> ...


Thanks for the info. If the unit performs slower than all the rest I have and it gets slower still what is the remedy for it? Is the unit going bad? Change oil?


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## sparkytrician (Feb 11, 2010)

It depends, do yours have the time delay valves under the screw caps? If so, you can try to adjust to get close to the same delay time. Other wise, the oil (Shell Tellus C10) can be changed and new seals installed too.


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