The Ultimate Book for VFD Reliability
Before the First Fault: A Field Guide to VFD Installation
The installation reliability handbook for the people who specify, install, commission, and troubleshoot drives in the field. 23 chapters covering the full VFD lifecycle. Five appendices including the ORCA-Size technical reference and the pre-energization checklist.
Comments From Experts
Dave Polka, Principal Technical Instructor in Variable Speed Drives and Controls and author of the ISA textbook Motors and Drives: A Practical Technology Guide (1st and 2nd Editions)
"All too often, the VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) gets a 'bad rap' for being too complicated, or not performing as it should, or failing when it shouldn't. Experience indicates that likely two-thirds of VFD installation issues are related to improper shielding, input or motor cable grounding, control signal cabling laying too close to power cables, and conducted or radiated noise characteristics, all of which indicate improper installation techniques. A large number of students passing through our classrooms echo the same sentiment: 'Gee, I never knew,' or 'We've always done it this way before, seems to work OK.' 'Seems to work' doesn't give company management the warm and fuzzies.
This book by Carl Lee Tolbert aims at cutting through the clutter, theory, and misconceptions, providing real-world examples of applications that work as designed and control the process efficiently and effectively."
Brad Tompkins, founder of Automation Solutions, Inc., and now Vice President of Integrated Automation at Livingston and Haven in Birmingham, Alabama
"I started Automation Solutions in Birmingham in 2008 and spent the next seventeen years installing PLCs, drives, robots, and vision systems into manufacturing facilities, and then we lived with the consequences. We have spent a lot of years staring at drives that quit working long before they should have. We stopped saying drives die a long time ago. Drives don't die. Drives get murdered. The only question left is what kind of homicide we're looking at. First degree, where somebody knew better and did it anyway. Negligent homicide, where nobody read the manual. Reckless endangerment, where control wires got zip tied to the motor leads. And then the rarest charge of all, accidental, where every box was checked and the drive still didn't make it. The hardware almost always shows up willing to do its job.
Training is critical and mistakes are expensive. Without good training and good information up front, every drive you size no matter the size, carries a risk. There are far more factors that go into a correct sizing than most people realize, and that is exactly the gap this book fills."
Gerald Bernard, Director of Application Engineering Systems at B&D Industrial
"This book by Carl Lee Tolbert aims at cutting through the clutter, theory and misconceptions, providing real-world examples of applications that work as designed, and control the process efficiently and effectively."