Article in IA Magazine, Nov/Dec 2011, Page 28-36
In many respects, large motors and generators in petrochemical plants have become a commodity product with intense competition to secure orders among manufacturers from around the world. This has resulted in pressure on machine designers to reduce manufacturing costs. Many design and processing innovations have been successfully implemented. However, there are both anecdotal and statistical data that indicate that there are more problems with machines made in the past ten years when compared with machines made earlier. Engineering firms and end users perhaps need to provide comprehensive, yet reasonable, purchase specifications chat allow all manufacturers to compete on a level-playing field. Stator windings raced greater than 6 kV and rotors of various-sized machines are the main topics of discussion.