CARE OF MOTORS

CARE OF MOTORS ^[1]

237. Modern methods of design and construction have made the electric motor one of the least complicated and most dependable forms of machinery in existence and have thereby made the matter of its maintenance one of comparative simplicity. This statement should not, however, be taken to mean that proper maintenance is not important; on the contrary, it must be given careful consideration if the best performance and longest life are to be expected from the motor. The two major features, from the standpoint of their effect upon the general performance of the motor, are those of proper lubrication and the care given to insulation, because they concern the most vital, and probably the most vulnerable, parts of the machine.

238. Lubrication. The designs of bearings and bearing housings of motors have been remarkably improved. The bearings of modern motors, whether sleeve, ball, or roller, require infrequent attention. This advance in the art is not yet fully appreciated, for although there may have been some necessity for more frequent attention in the case of older designs with housings less tight than on modern machines, oiling and greasing of new motors are quite often entrusted to uninformed and careless attendants, with the result that oil or grease is copiously and frequently applied to the outside as well as the inside of bearing housings. Some of the excess lubricant is carried into the machine and lodges on the windings, where it catches dirt and thereby hastens...