Electrical Question???

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tjohnson

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Dec 29, 2009
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Savage, MN
Electric Advice Needed

I'm converting one of my Hammermills from a 10hp gas engine to an electric motor.  With gas at $3.60/gallon, and the engine burning 1-2 gallons per hour, it's costing me some serious cash to grind sawdust.  I am also dumping the pulley drives and going to a direct drive with a Lovejoy coupling.

I just purchased a 5hp 220v 50hz motor that had just been removed from an air compressor cuz the MFG. sent a single phase instead of a 3-phase motor.

Here's my question....Can I run a 50hz motor on a 60hz electrical service?

Everything I've read says I can, but the motor will run 20% faster.

THX!

Todd
 
I just wish we could buy gas at $3.60 - that would save me 44 cents a gallon.  Good luck with the electrical conversion
 
I have seen electric drills run on 180 vdc. That's no--0--hz. Can't explain it. Don't want to. Just sayin' cuz it seemed like the thing to do. 
 
Todd you should check with the manufacture of the motor and get their option.  The other thing is to find out what a replacement 60hz motor would cost if you should run into trouble.  Since it is a 50hz motor one other thing to check is the frame size, this should be part of the name plate data.  I have not done a lot of motor work but make sure it does not have some odd frame size or you may have to redo the motor mounts if you replace the motor someday.
 
Yes you can but eventually it will burn up.  Had a customer wanting to run a 60hz washing machine overseas with a 110vac to 220vac voltage converter and didn't know if the diff. in hz (60 to 50) would damage it.  we called the manufacturer who said it could be done but would shorten the motor life by 10-15%; on a washer that meant from 10 yrs to 8-9 yrs and he was only going to be overseas 4 years; the gov''t was paying for it to be shipped and bought the converter ($600) - it would have been cheaper to have just bought a machine over there but that's not how the gov't worked, lol!
 
Todd,

I concur with Pops, we are close to New Zealand and they are 50hz, the appliances that come from there have been know to work for a while and then burn out, it seems the harder the motor works the quicker it burns out, however I have a 50hz washing machine that has been going strong for 6 years, I'm not certain about the speed being 20% faster, my machine turns at the normal speed, if it's true and the motor does turn 20% faster will your hammer mill take the increase in speed?

Any chance of some Q-view of your operation, I think that would be fascinating.

Gene
 
My company has been running 50HZ motors at 60 for over 25 years and there has not been a problem. the only issue is some have cycle timers that are motor driven that we have to compensate for with what we call metric time, try explaining that to a new employee.
 
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