# Recommended maintenance and testing equipment



## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

Going along with some of the other threads I have started, I would really like to expand my knowledge and skills into the industrial power maintenance and testing type work, stuff like MCCs, three phase breakers, transformers, motors, VFDs, automatic transfer switches, etc. Currently the plant has a few specialty meters such as fluke 789 process meter, fluke 1507 insulation resistance tester, fluke 744 documenting process calibrator (honestly haven't used this one much except for troubleshooting RTDs), fluke milli amp clamp (use this thing all the time), and a flir thermal camera. As I look to expand my knowledge, I am fully aware that I will most likely need some tools/meters to do this work correctly, problem is I have no idea what they are. 

Ive been looking through NFPA 70B and NETA MTS trying to get some ideas of what to try to learn. It appears that a micro-ohm meter comes into play a lot. seems to be a lot of different sizes of them, which I assume relates to the size of equipment you are testing? Millivolt meter for fall of potential tests seem like it would be useful, and not to exotic. Seems a megger is pretty useful too, is the 1507 we already have an ok unit? Or are we going to need a bigger, more powerful, more advanced unit to do some things? The 1507 seems ok but Ive only ever really used it on motors. Then there is the other specialty meters for turns ratio tests, power factor tests, etc. At this point I don't really know what is the most useful types to be looking at, or what brands etc to look at. 

I know there are several folks here who are very experienced in this area (ok 3 or 4 in particular) and I would love to get some input on what some of the most useful types of test equipment is to get first etc. Keep in mind we don't have crazy big stuff, biggest motor we have is 150 hp, main breaker in the one plant is only 2000 amp or thereabouts. We are also a fairly small operation so I probably don't need all the fancy automatic logging and reporting that a contractor might want. If there is simpler old school ways or tools to do these tests, I am all ears. I would rather really understand what I am doing and know what the simple measurement mean and create my own reports rather than pushing a button and have the meter do everything for me. I'm the sort of person who drags the old Simpson meters out of the junk pile and tries to get them to work, if that explains anything. So this is all a long way of asking, whats in your toolboxes?


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

Your insulation tester is fine. Unless you have higher voltages than 600 to worry about. 

Your tool bag DMM should do milivolts. Not much reason to get anything more unless you are planning on board level repair or something. 

A micro ohm meter is def useful in some situations but again unless your doing board level stuff or are going to do in house rewinds I wouldn’t mortgage the farm for one. 

You have a Flir imager but which? Where I worked before I could see heat reflections with ours. I could follow someone’s foot steps for a few minutes from the heat the friction of their shoe left behind. Where I work now our “Flir” is only a tiny bit better than the one you can attach to your smart phone. You’ll need thermography training and practice to make use of the former. 

Since you haven’t mentioned it I’ll throw it out there. Since you have motors there and time I’ll suggest vibration analysis system. IMHO it’s more important and predictive than any electrical testing. You said before there’s no such thing as extended downtime there. Vibration analysis can see things comming 6 months to a year before failure. 

Good Vibration analysis coupled with proper thermography trumps anything else you are considering. Not that everything else isn’t important or useful, it’s just not as predictive. So if the goal is no downtime that’s where the bulk of effort, expense and education should be spent.


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## gpop (May 14, 2018)

Flyingsod said:


> Good Vibration analysis coupled with proper thermography trumps anything else you are considering. Not that everything else isn’t important or useful, it’s just not as predictive. So if the goal is no downtime that’s where the bulk of effort, expense and education should be spent.


I agree with Flyingsod. 

A lot of PM's come from problems that have happened in the past and that depends on the environment you work in and the equipment you are in. 
My last job had a lot of air actuated valves and IDP's so filtering and draining the air supply's was high on the PM hit list. Water/moisture intrusion was another problem which lead to a lot of redesign. Simply things like venting return air from the solenoid manifold outside of the cabinet, Adding spacers between the valves and the actuator so a failed seal would not be forced back to the solenoids, etc.
When i started in the juice industry we had 20 pages of backlog, no pm system and everything was patched to run. 5 years later we were spending 80% of our time on PM's, Within 10 years 98% of all work was planned controlled maintenance and PM's. (won lots of awards for best practices, etc)

Trace down a problem, come up with a plan to correct the problem (may mean testing like leaving a IDP valve in a bucket of water exercising for a month to make sure it really is water tight), make the changes then educate the people involved. 
Start simple with some something like how to wire a motor. What are you using at what HP, is there a better way to do it, what is your failure rate. 

With out knowing the problem you are facing its hard to give good advice which is why people have mentioned equipment numbers and records as being part of the PM system. 

If you have money to spend then a power quality analyzer with built in data recorder would be on the wish list. Its easier to find a problem when you have a record of what really happened.


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## wiz1997 (Mar 30, 2021)

A motor rotation/phase rotation meter is a must.
Running a pump in reverse could spin the impeller off, ask how I know that one.
I've used all kinds and brands of meters over the years.
It wasn't until just recently that I found one of my favorites.
Does everything I need except it's not a megger.
All the normal multi-meter stuff with recording feature for amperage, has motor and phase rotation and a few other things I haven't played with yet.
When it comes to vibration monitoring and power analysis, we bring in someone from outside.
The last place I worked we had 12 20 ton overhead gantry cranes, and 4 10 ton cranes, left those to the professionals.
You really need to look at what you expect the employees to know and do.
Where I'm at now someone bought several meters that have been in the box for years and never been used.
Which reminds me, I have a Fluke 867b I've had since 2000 and have never used.
Anyone looking for one?


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

wiz1997 said:


> It wasn't until just recently that I found one of my favorites.
> 
> Where I'm at now someone bought several meters that have been in the box for years and never been used.


Tell us all about your cool favorite meter but then don’t tell us what it is! So rude. 

We have a couple unused meters also. Bought by ignorant bosses wanting to impress their bosses. 


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## wiz1997 (Mar 30, 2021)

Flyingsod said:


> Tell us all about your cool favorite meter but then don’t tell us what it is! So rude.
> 
> We have a couple unused meters also. Bought by ignorant bosses wanting to impress their bosses.
> 
> ...


Didn't want to get into the "this meter is better than that meter" discussion.
But I will name that meter.


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## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

wiz1997 said:


> But I will name that meter.


Ok, been sitting here for 2 hours waiting. 

Now I'm hungry and going to make a bacon sandwich.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

Ok for rotation testing an Amprobe AMP-330 does that plus it’s a decent true RMS multimeter useful for most motor and drive testing. On VFDs you need diode testing, capacitor testing, true RMS AC and DC voltage and a decent amp clamp. And it does rotation. Fluke has nothing even close.

On soft starts you also need a fairly high range ohm meter up to around 3-5 mega ohms which a lot of industrial meters can’t do. Amprobe AM-570 can. I think in Fluke you’re stuck buying the overpriced 87V.

On motor testing you need both a cheap IR gun (not camera) and Megger. Up to 1,000 V motors (any voltage) on stators run the test for 1 minute (60 seconds) at 500 V and take temperature. Apply the temperature correction. 5 Megaohns is the minimum for a PM and done this way it’s trendable. This really only tests for moisture, contamination, and insulation burned to the point where it burns the slot insulation or other bad insulation. The next step up is a milliohm meter which if you don’t have a micro ohmeter is a whole lot cheaper like a couple hundred bucks. This directly detects turn to turn faults, also useful with transformers. The final test other than online tests used in motor shops is a surge or inductance test. You can use an LCR meter for inductance in hand testing. Or you can do the whole sequence of motor tests with a PdMA tester. Works great if you have an extra $100k laying around for the meter and training to use it which is why motor shops don’t have spares. This is where it’s cheaper to pay someone else.

In breaker testing other than visual inspections and safety equipment the big tools you need are a megger, micro ohm meter, magnetic bottle tester (if you have vacuum bottles), and a high current tester. The general sequence is to clean, exercise, lube, then megger line to load with it open, close then megger A to B and B to C, then micro ohm line to load, and finally run 2-3 time current tests per phase and function. You may also need an external variable voltage power supply and definitely a generator. With external protective relaying you may also need a relay tester and that’s a science unto itself. Figure around $2-4k for a micro ohm meter, $30k for the breaker tester, and $60k for a decent relay tester. Trust me even the companies that do this work rent equipment. Brand wise Ductor and Megger DLRO are popular but very overpriced for ohms. With breaker testers the ETI PI-4000B is very popular but the Oden AT is considerably more portable. I like the Manta MTS for relay testing...very hands on if you don’t want to do a lot of PC setup stuff.

For transformers megger and ohm / milli ohm again does most of it although an LCR helps. A TTR is nice but if you don’t have one some techs rig a cheater cord and a light bulb on the high side then measure the voltage ratio. There are lots of TTRs out there no real preference.

A PC and an RS-232 tester and a selection of gender changers and null modem adapters is really useful with a laptop loaded with say Virtualbox. Run software with each program in its own separate virtual machine. This is all cheap.

You also need to know what you are testing for and why. There are a bunch of companies out there that do tons of testing but have no idea what they are doing or why so garbage in, garbage out. I really suggest you take every opportunity to learn about the equipment then you will know what you are testing for. So for instance if you send out a motor for repair, do a site visit and go through the process with the motor shop. Same with transformers, breakers. Or if equipment is being built go for factory acceptance testing or site visits. You can learn a ton from a couple hours at a manufacturing plant.


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## wiz1997 (Mar 30, 2021)

Wirenuting said:


> Ok, been sitting here for 2 hours waiting.
> 
> Now I'm hungry and going to make a bacon sandwich.


I work nights so I had to wait until break time.


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## wiz1997 (Mar 30, 2021)

paulengr said:


> Ok for rotation testing an Amprobe AMP-330 does that plus it’s a decent true RMS multimeter useful for most motor and drive testing. On VFDs you need diode testing, capacitor testing, true RMS AC and DC voltage and a decent amp clamp. And it does rotation. Fluke has nothing even close.


Mr Paulengr,
Is correct, it's an Amprobe AMP-330.

I was working on one of our hot oil circulating pumps, hot oil 300 degrees Celsius, is circulated through a heat exchanger to heat the oil we fry chips in.
I left my tools sitting where they should have been safe, but the new guy jumped the gun and instead of draining the oil out of the pump into the catch can trough the drain line, he pulled the pump apart, dumping very hot oil everywhere very quickly. 
Yep, he melted my Amprobe AD105A.
Did some complaining about it and the boss bought me a new Amprobe AMP-330.
Nice, almost all in one meter.

Took a lot of kitty litter to clean that mess up.
Then we made him refill the expansion tank back up with a hand pump, nearly 35 gallons of oil on the floor, because the new guy knows it all.


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

Thanks for the input. Obviously there is going to be a lot of higher end things that I simply can't do in house due to the cost of the equipment vs the value gained, current injection etc. I've been meaning to put in for a rotation/phase meter, gotten along without so far but a few applications it would be nice. I may put a micro ohm meter for checking connection resistance on the radar. We just have the lower end flir camera, it seems to work well enough to show a bad motor bearing or a hot breaker. I've been looking into ultrasonic equipment lately, ill have to look into vibration analysis some more. Both technologies seem like they could be extremely valuable, more so on the mechanical side of things. They both seem to be expensive and require extensive experience to fully utilize though. Obviously knowledge of electrical theory and component construction is the most valuable tool, so that's an area Ill focus on, thinking of getting the _power equipment maintenance and testing _book. Are there any other recommended references or training classes/courses that come recommended? I would rather be the guy that shows up with an analogue multi meter and understands enough to figure out whats wrong, than show up with a cube van full expensive testers and just blindly take meaningless measurements.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

mburtis said:


> Thanks for the input. Obviously there is going to be a lot of higher end things that I simply can't do in house due to the cost of the equipment vs the value gained, current injection etc. I've been meaning to put in for a rotation/phase meter, gotten along without so far but a few applications it would be nice. I may put a micro ohm meter for checking connection resistance on the radar. We just have the lower end flir camera, it seems to work well enough to show a bad motor bearing or a hot breaker. I've been looking into ultrasonic equipment lately, ill have to look into vibration analysis some more. Both technologies seem like they could be extremely valuable, more so on the mechanical side of things. They both seem to be expensive and require extensive experience to fully utilize though. Obviously knowledge of electrical theory and component construction is the most valuable tool, so that's an area Ill focus on, thinking of getting the _power equipment maintenance and testing _book. Are there any other recommended references or training classes/courses that come recommended? I would rather be the guy that shows up with an analogue multi meter and understands enough to figure out whats wrong, than show up with a cube van full expensive testers and just blindly take meaningless measurements.


Need to look into level 2 certified vibration tech. You can learn level 1 on your own. Good tools are $30k. Fluke bought Pruf technik unfortunately. There goes another good product down the drain.


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

paulengr said:


> Need to look into level 2 certified vibration tech. You can learn level 1 on your own. Good tools are $30k. Fluke bought Pruf technik unfortunately. There goes another good product down the drain.


Love/hate Fluke for that. Last place I worked we got bit hard with their I/ R crap. I still prefer Fluke Dmm’s but I will never buy or recommend any of their rebranded crapola. It’s sad for me to hear they got their claws on pruftechnic. 


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

mburtis said:


> looking into ultrasonic equipment lately, ill have to look into vibration analysis some more. Both technologies seem like they could be extremely valuable, more so on the mechanical side of things.


Im off to look into this ultrasonic thing. I wasn’t aware of it. Thanks!


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## Bourbon County (Aug 19, 2020)

I commend you on wanting to start a predictive maintenance program. The whole idea of predictive maintenance is to prevent catastrophic breakdowns, not nickle/dime ones. It's not really feasible to monitor every component on every machine. You have to go through your assets and determine the most critical ones to put into your program. There are a couple of considerations that need to be addressed before you start though. First, is your management willing to make the cost investment in equipment, labor, training, and (lots of) data storage to support the program? The second consideration is safety; some of the tests requires someone to get hands on rotating motors and equipment. How does your maintenance staff and safety department feel about this? Does your equipment have cat IV safety guards with Lexan fences and undefeatable gate switches? Remote sensors can be installed during a lock-out condition and wired back to a break-out box outside the fenced area if this is the case, it just adds cost.

If you want to tip-toe into vibration analysis, Fluke makes a model 810 that is about $10K and requires very little training to operate. This model was originally designed for the US Navy and simplified so a 20 year old sailor could check shipboard equipment thousands of miles out to sea and get reliable samplings. John Bernet who used to be with DLI Azima designed the instrument and wrote the firmware. The Fluke software for this is free but somewhat limited in scope but will detect about 80-85% of pending failures. It uses a color coded bar graph to show equipment condition. The firmware is based on ISO standard 10816 which is a widely accepted standard of vibration levels for different size equipment. When you start a vibration program, be mindful that you are buying a system that consists of accelerometers, data collectors, and often very expensive software. Banner is pushing a system they are making, it has wireless biaxial sensors that communicate back to a collector that can take I believe up to 8 sensors and they are Ethernet connected to a computer, This is strictly a "check engine light" system and you can't do any analysis with their software. . Emerson is a major player in this market as well as Pruftechnik, and a company I really like KCF Technologies makes wireless sensors and an awesome set of software and offer storage in their cloud. 

I mentioned DLI Azmia who once had Alan Friedman, Jason Tranter (founder of Mobius Institute), and John Bernet all working for them at the same time. The interesting thing here is these are all level IV vibration analysts and there are probably less than a dozen or so level IVs on the planet.

Someone mentioned ultrasonic which is my preferred technology. Before I retired, we bought a UE Systems instrument which has the added benefit of sensing airborne ultrasonic such as compress air/gas leaks, as well as structure borne ultrasonic like as a motor, reducer, or bearing by using a different transducer. With this company you don't just buy their product, you enter a partnership with them, their tech support is unmatched. If you get someone on the phone who can't answer your questions, they will put you in touch with someone who can. Depending on how much compressed air or gas your facility uses you can probably pay for the instrument (about $17K) by identifying leaks and repairing them. In most plants, compressed air is usually the most expensive utility they use. I know everyone thinks they can hear an air leak but with this you can track it down to which valve port or which side of the fitting is actually leaking and very quickly. The UE software is a free download and very extensive and user friendly, it includes a report page that has blocks to import a thermal image or vibration FFT on the same report. you can even attach up to a 60 second sound file. Ultrasonic is by far the easiest to use with very little training and is actually an earlier indicator than vibration or thermal. If you have any low speed equipment, vibration is not accurate on anything less than 200 RPM, ultrasonic is accurate down to fractions of an RPM and works well on equipment with short cycle times. Ultrasonic can even identify lubrication issues. The only downside to ultrasonic is that you have to track a piece of equipment over time with multiple readings to determine if it's starting to fail, in a lot of cases vibration can tell you in one reading if it's starting to fail by comparing data collected to the appropriate column in ISO 10816. 

For a thorough test of electric motors, there are MCA (motor circuit analyzer) on the market. All Test Pro, and Pruftechnik are 2 I know of. I didn't know that Fluke had bought Pruftechnik until I read this thread. These instruments have tests to run on both an energized and DE energized motor and measure much more than just insulation resistance. They can test for bowed or broken rotor bars, rotor eccentricity, winding harmonics, and much more. These tend to run around $15-20K and do require some training for the operator.

Do you have any oil filled gear boxes? Oil analysis is an early indicator and there are a number of labs that do a quick and accurate job at a reasonable cost $30 or so per sample. All you have to do is draw a 4 oz sample into a bottle label it and send it out. Check with the vendor who supplies your lubricants they likely know of a lab they use. Most labs will set up a database for your company and you can track results over time from their database.

Thermal is useful on control panels, switchgear, transformers, and to an extent on motors. There are IR windows available to mount in enclosure doors that allow the operator to take the images without opening the doors on switchgear or transformer vaults. Thermal is actually a lagging indicator and if you detect a motor bearing going out with a thermal camera, you're lucky. By the time it shows on thermal, it's usually too late, the damage is already done. The most useful thing for a thermal image is the FlirTools software, you can manipulate it to look like an ice cube is about to burst into flames. This makes a good cover sheet for a report if you have to get some non technical accountant, purchasing agent, or upper management to approve the money for replacing or overhauling the equipment since they won't have a clue what an ultrasonic or vibration FFT means. It's kinda like the old saying in golf, you drive for the show, you putt for the dough, the thermal image is your dough. If you do maintenance on your plant's facilities, most industrial insurance companies require a roof inspection once or twice a year on a flat roof, you can do that too. It works much better after dark. 

The IR guns or laser thermometers are not a predictive tool. They are probably one of the least understood and most misused tools out there. They are an aspect ratio measuring device, look on the side of the gun and it will say 10:1 or maybe 12:1 which is the ratio of that tool. That means that for every 10 units of distance you are from the target, you are measuring the average temperature of 1 unit of that distance, the laser dot just happens to be the center of the spot. In other words, if you are 10 feet from the target, you are measuring a 1 foot diameter spot. They are inexpensive and good for a quick dirty check, but cannot accurately pick out a hot bearing in a running motor like a thermal imager can. Flir invented the thermal imager and in my opinion the only viable choice on the market.

Don't limit your testing to strictly motors, include gearboxes, bearings, and whatever equipment the motor is driving like pumps, compressors, blowers, conveyors, critical bearings, etc. The whole idea of predictive maintenance is to identify a pending failure before it actually fails. A motor or component can be replaced/repaired over a weekend or shutdown under much less stress and avoid machine downtime altogether. Every company has some formula for calculating the cost of downtime, usually greatly enhanced. Use their formula for reporting what you saved them by detecting a pending failure and avoiding it altogether. You really have to toot your own horn in this business or it will likely go unnoticed. This will be a cost savings report your boss will love to report to his bosses. A maintenance organization can't make money for a company but they can surely save money. 

There are many companies using predictive maintenance programs: all of the auto makers, Amazon, Molson/Coors, Michelin Tire, Bosch, pharmaceutical manufacturers, frackers, refineries, even baggage handling systems in larger airports. It is a program that will more than pay for itself, but requires management buy-in and trained people to take and analyze the data with perseverance. 

There are a number of good websites to look at like CBM Connect (owned by Mobius Institute). Reliable Plant, UE Systems, Flir has an extensive knowledge base to name a few.

Good luck and let us know how it works out for you.. If you can only buy 1 instrument, I highly recommend ultrasonic.


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## Bourbon County (Aug 19, 2020)

If you contact UE Systems, they have regional managers all around the country and will set up an in plant demo for you. They might even loan you a demo unit for a week or so. If you end up buying one, negotiate with them to include a seat in one of their level I training courses, this is about a $2K value. They have regional training most all year round and usually last a week.


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