Development of a new off-line test procedure for low voltage rotating machines fed by adjustable speed drives (ASD)

Using adjustable speed drives employing fast switching components to supply low voltage asynchronous motors may be detrimental to their reliability in some cases. The premature failures of the insulating materials are often attributed to the existence of partial discharges (PD) in the windings. Nevertheless, a clear evidence of any PD existence in such systems is far from being established. Also, their location may not be in the turn-to-ground or phase-to-phase insulation but in the turn-to-turn insulation due to the voltage waveforms, and as such, the classical AC test is no longer applicable. The aim of this paper is to present an off-line test procedure capable of overcoming this problem. The results of the test carried out on the representative population of different motors are presented.