Powerflex 40 drives that only work when heated up

[Andymac]

I have recently started at a new plant, and we use a lot of power flex 40 drives for conveyors. on my fiorst day they sent me to start a line armed with a heat gun to heat up drive. i was skeptical of this practice but after 5 mins or so the drive did power up. i am quite curious as to how this works. I've done it several times since. I am more curious about what i could do to fix this issue. experienced maintenace members here have all just said it's what we do. which drives me nuts

 

[Steve Bailey]

What is the ambient temperature of the motor and drive? What exactly do you apply the hot air to? Define "power up".

 

[Andymac]

Ambient temp is generally 20-32 Celsius. And by power up I mean there is power to drive but does not turn on. Screen blank and shows no function. After heating drive sceen will flicker a few times and then start and run as normal . There are 4 that do this and all power flex 40s .

Heat is applied all around drive evenly. Have to keep gun moving or it will melt housing. Usually do circles around it

 

[Steve Bailey]

That is truly bizarre! Are you heating the HIM or the entire drive? Is the run command coming from the HIM or from a signal at the terminals? Same question for the speed command? Wondering if the flaky components are the HIMs or something in the drives.

 

[Andymac]

Once it turns on one is speed and start are controlled by HIM and the other 3 controlled by a signal. Same as speed for the 3 a potentiometer .

 

[Andymac]

The actual issue is getting it to power up. One it starts they work as they should

 

[jstolaruk]

Cold circuit board has an open trace till it warms up and the connection become complete.

 

[padees]

20C is 68F, so doubt temp is the issue. Back in 2019 I did a project going to Red Deer, Alberta, but that was with PF525's. It didn't appear altitude would be an issue (thin air causing issues)

If these are powered all the time, as mentioned, shouldn't have problems with a PF40.

It is bizarre!

 

[jstolaruk]

Cold is relative and in this case "cold" is a temperature lower than what the heat gun is bringing the product temperature up to. Everything is suspect at this point.

 

[padees]

If temp is the issue, I would suggest to replace the drives.

I didn't see anything on altitude in the manual.

Alberta is a bit more in altitude than here.

 

[OkiePC]

This reminds me of the "Lazarus drive" we nicknamed when I worked in a food plant. It was a PF4. I never associated it with temperature but it was about 35 degrees in the production room where it lived.

Here's a thread where I mentioned it in response to a similar issue.

PowerFlex 4 Delayed Power Up Internal Issue

Hello all! This is my first post! Were I work we have 2 of the exact same machines. Each machine contains 2 PowerFlex 4's Cat# 22A-D4P0N104. They work as expected for the most part. But roughly about every 2 years. We will have one that will not power up as soon as the 480 VAC is applied. If...

www.plctalk.net

 

[padees]

It could just be an inherent issue with the PF4 class. I had a press brake that used a PF4 on the back gauge, and it flaked out all the time. It was replaced, worked for a few days, then flaked out again.