Research Article Open Access

Role of Energy Efficient Bearings on Performance of Electric Motors

Abstract

Efficient use of energy enables commercial and industrial facilities to minimize production costs, increase profits, and stay competitive. The majority of electrical energy consumed in most industrial units is used to run electric motors. Energy-efficient motors now available are typically from 2 to 6 percent more efficient than their standard motor counterparts. To continue this endeavor further energy efficient bearings are developed which further improves the efficiency of energy efficient motors. This efficiency improvement translates into substantial energy savings as well as become a cost effective tool. There has been a consistent effort with motor manufacturers to evaluate various means to reduce the component losses in the motor to improve the Efficiency value. One of the neglected or less utilised ways is to reduce the friction losses and thereby increase the Efficiency, primarily due to the fact that this method required precise machining practices and use of low friction loss bearings. This paper aims to address this method and try to achieve the partially improved figures of Efficiency in addition to increased Bearing Life, in turn reducing the running cost of the motor. The paper presents comparison of practical values of efficiency during testing of energy efficient motors with normal bearings and with energy efficient bearings. The tests were carried out on field by one of the leading companies. The results obtained are very much encouraging. This is the latest practice and very few industries have adopted this technique. If this innovation is followed by most of the motor industries then it is the new revolution in the field of motor design.

S Nerurkar, S S Kulkarni, and D Desai

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