Special purpose pump motor power sensors and controls have been available for over 25 years. Because power levels from pump motors relate directly to pumping work being performed, these sensors and controls have proven useful to protecting pumps and motors. Changes in motor power can provide early feedback that could indicate abnormal events such as dry running, cavitation, overloads or bearing failures. This early detection of faults is particularly useful in applications where the fluid being pumped is valuable, dangerous, or particularly messy if it gets out into the environment. Similarly, this protection is highly important in any environments where downtime is costly.
Recent advances in networking, storage and processing power have expanded the use of this power data from pump and motor protection to include predictive maintenance, energy monitoring and early fault
prediction. By looking at pump motor power over four time horizons the same data can provide all these insightful benefits.
