How to prevent your electrical drives having a meltdown

Last year was also reported to be the hottest year on record by the Met Office. Without being alarmist, that is a serious issue that we cannot ignore. Rising temperatures are a global trend and they will have a major impact on your electrical equipment, says Christian Westwood, service manager at Rittal UK.

Factory floors have always been relatively hostile spaces for all types of electrical equipment including the PLCs and drives responsible for keeping the lines moving. Their components don’t react well to high levels of moisture, dust and heat in the atmosphere. It’s an uncomfortable fact that as we get closer to summer, our service teams start seeing a sharp increase in calls about equipment failures and system malfunctions.

As temperatures go up, many production teams try to protect their drives by adjusting the system’s climate control units. Ironically, this can be the trigger for operations to slow or even stop. If the cooling units are poorly maintained, for example, then the increase in demand can cause them to trip or fail completely, leaving panel temperatures to rise unchecked. 

Alternatively, if units haven’t been correctly specified, or the company has installed new electrical drives without upgrading its cooling system, then lowering the setpoint is not only a risk, it can also be in vain as units are simply not able to deliver the required amount of cooling. So, the cooling equipment fails at precisely the time when the company most needs it.

If your cooling system crashes, your critical automation equipment will shut down to prevent further damage to its components, and without functioning electrical controls, your production lines will grind to a halt. Not only will this have an immediate impact on productivity, but there will also be further substantive costs to get the plant up and running again. Any lost output caused by a hiatus in the processes that the equipment controls, will continue for as long as it takes to repair the fault, and this may have huge, wide-reaching, and expensive consequences for a business.

All electrical equipment generates heat as a by-product of its activities, and this heat needs to be removed. For every increase of 10°C in your panel temperature, it’s estimated that the life of your expensive equipment, including PLCs, and variable speed drives, is halved.

Of course, any system can fail without warning. However, it’s more likely that you will experience certain warning signs beforehand, which indicate that your cooling equipment is starting to struggle: frequent tripping, enclosures that are hot to touch, the need to open enclosure doors and use fans through the summer, and increased production downtime. If you’ve encountered one or more of these, then something may be amiss and should be investigated before bigger problems surface.

It’s also worth checking the date of the last scheduled service and maintenance visit, and if this in line with manufacturer’s recommendations. However tough the trading conditions, not servicing your vital electrical cooling units is almost always a false economy.

Next steps

Rittal recommends that you arrange for a health check of your cooling before temperatures start rising so that any necessary remedial measures can be taken before problems arise. During one of our free RiAssure Service and Efficiency Checks, a member of our experienced Rittal team will inspect up to ten cooling units. They will offer practical advice on ways in which the units’ effectiveness and energy efficiency may be improved.

For large installations, or where a more technical inspection is necessary, Rittal can arrange for a more comprehensive RiAssure Advanced Service and Efficiency Check, conducted by one of our trained service engineers. They will perform a series of detailed checks on your climate control units and enclosures, gathering the necessary data to resolve more complex issues. You will then be provided with written feedback, including advice around adding value to your business and future best practise guidance.