Brushing up on your maintenance practices

The successful long-term operation of DC motors and generators, like the operation of any piece of industrial equipment, requires maintenance. Scheduled, periodic, visual inspections and the recording of this data are valuable information when reviewing that machines' performance. These written inspection reports serve much better than the memory of the maintenance technician or supervisor when questioning the performance history of a certain piece of equipment. A generic inspection record format is included, along with guidelines to help make decisions on the health status of these motors. This article expands on ten major items of concern for the successful long-term operation of DC machines.